On?Saturday?morning, February 27, 1993, I stood with then Barbados Minister of Tourism and Sport, Wes Hall, at the New Wanderers cricket ground in Johannesburg, South Africa in a packed President’s Box of dignitaries.
The equally packed stands were awaiting the start of a 50-over clash between a West Indies team with the likes of captain Richie Richardson, Desmond Haynes, Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose, Carl Hooper, Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop, Gus Logie and Ian Bishop, and an equally as impressive Pakistan side with players like Rameez Raja, Aamer Sohail, Shoaib Mohammad, Javed Miandad, Zahid Fazal, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed.
It was the final match in a tri-nation series between South Africa, Pakistan and West Indies and marked the first official appearances by the visitors following the dismantling of the oppressive apartheid system of government.
However, the excitement that enveloped the groups was not for the two teams standing facing each other off the pitch, but for a man whose status overwhelmed them all and for whom the entire ground exploded with an ear-shattering roar as he stepped on the field to meet them. It was Madiba, the great freedom fighter Nelson Mandela and soon to be first black president of the previously white-ruled country
Soon, he and his party were headed in our direction and as he entered, the room parted to allow his hosts to introduce him to persons on both sides of the divide. Then a strange thing happened. He lifted his head, his eyes lit up, his smile turned into a burly laugh as he shouted: “Is that the great Wes Hall?”
With that he hurried along the corridor of bodies to where we were, embraced Wes with the affection of a juvenile fan, then allowed me to take a photograph of the two of them and for Wes to take one of the two of us. Later as we sat together, he first asked after his “good friend”, late Governor General Dame Nita Barrow, and for the first time ever I saw Sir Wesley stumped for words as Mandela revealed an unbelievably in-depth knowledge of West Indies cricket and its greatest stars, especially the Three Ws, Sir Garry and Wes himself.
How was that possible? He revealed that he had spent most of his time in prison reading and much of it was devoted to the world-conquering achievements of “your great black men from the West Indies.”
Goodbye Madiba. May you rest in peace.
• Al Gilkes heads a public relations firm.
