Abounding Joy

Ian Mcdonald

Description

Ian McDonald (1933-), the eminent poet, thinker and public intellectual, has written more than 1,500 articles over the last four decades.This book comprises 100 of his essays on sport, compiled, edited and vividly annotated by Clem Seecharan, the distinguished Guyanese historian. They cover tennis, squash, and boxing, but it is McDonald's revered sport, cricket, that predominates in this collection. The latter encompasses the history of the game, including its place in the soul of the West Indian people, in addition to its contemporary problems and challenges. There are also beautifully crafted pieces on his 'Uncle Bertie' Harragin (who played against WG Grace in 1906), WG himself, Frank Worrell, Joe Solomon, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Shiv Chanderpaul and, his greatest hero of them all, the superb Guyana and West Indies batsman, Rohan Kanhai.

Informations

• Publié par: Hansib Publications
• Date de parution: 18 juillet 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781912662517
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

AN ABOUNDING JOY
Ian McDonald in his prime, executing the backhand shot.

First published in Great Britain by Hansib Publications in 2019
Hansib Publications Limited P.O. Box 226, Hertford, SG14 3WY, United Kingdom
[e-mail] www.hansibpublications.com
Copyright Clem Seecharan and Ian McDonald, 2019
ISBN 978-1-912662-07-4
ePUB ISBN: 978-1-912662-51-7
Kindle ISBN: 978-1-912662-50-0
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
COVER IMAGE Ian McDonald in 1947, aged 14: the junior tennis champion of Trinidad.
Production by Hansib Publications Limited
www.hansibpublications.com
DEDICATION BY IAN McDONALD
For my Father JOHN ARCHIE McDONALD who Inspired my Love of Sport
ALSO BY CLEM SEECHARAN
Indo-West Indian Cricket (with Frank Birbalsingh)
India and the Shaping of the Indo-Guyanese Imagination, 1890s-1920s
Tiger in the Stars : The Anatomy of Indian Achievement in British Guiana, 1919-29
Bechu: Bound Coolie Radical in British Guiana, 1894-1901
Joseph Ruhomon s India: The Progress of her People at Home and Abroad and how those in British Guiana may Improve Themselves
Sweetening Bitter Sugar : Jock Campbell, the Booker Reformer in British Guiana, 1934-66
Muscular Learning: Cricket and Education in the Making of the British West Indies at the End of the 19th Century
From Ranji to Rohan: Cricket and Indian Identity in Colonial Guyana, 1890s-1960s
Mother India s Shadow over El Dorado: Indo-Guyanese Politics and Identity, 1890s-1930s
Finding Myself: Essays on Race, Politics and Culture
Hand-in-Hand History of Cricket in Guyana, 1865-1897, Vol. 1: The Foundation
Hand-in-Hand History of Cricket in Guyana, 1898-1914, Vol. 2: A Stubborn Mediocrity
Hand-in-Hand History of Cricket in Guyana, 1915-1939, Vol. 3: A Difficult Consolidation (forthcoming)
Cheddi Jagan and the Cold War, 1946-1992 (forthcoming)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS by Ian McDonald
My father firstly, and most importantly, inspired in me a love and respect for sport which has lasted all my life. I hope this book records in a small way the many others, on and off the field, who have contributed to maintaining and strengthening the love and respect I have for sport.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to Professor Clem Seecharan for getting this book done - working with wondrous speed and professional skill to compile, edit, annotate, introduce and prepare it for publication. Astonishing!
I am also very grateful to Arif Ali and Kash Ali at Hansib for taking a strong interest in this book; and for working with such zeal and proficiency in meeting strict publication deadlines.
I am tremendously grateful to Stabroek News for first publishing the great majority of the essays in this book in their column Ian On Sunday . Their help and support have been unfailing. Writing this brings back memories of my friend and founder of this paper, David de Caires (1937-2008). The intellectual curiosity David and I shared, over many decades, has stayed with me. It is imperishable. I am also grateful to Anand Persaud, Editor-in-Chief of Stabroek News , whose generosity in publishing my column, week after week, ensures that my intellectual curiosity never atrophies.
I thank Zelitha Robinson who for many years has been indispensable in getting my work typed and computerised and presented for publication. Her good humour, patience and efficiency were a godsend to me. Sadly, she passed away, while this book was in preparation.
In all this I am eternally grateful to my wife Mary for her love and for the interest and support she gives me in my life and writings. Without her everything would be more ordinary and I would be able to achieve far less.
CONTENTS
PREFACE by Clem Seecharan Sport in his Soul: Ian McDonald and the Pursuit of Beauty
I. INTRODUCTION: SPORT IN IAN S LIFE
1. An Abounding Joy
2. Let us Rescue them from the Shadows: Uncle Bertie, an Eternal Presence
3. Queen s Park Cricket Club, Trinidad, Speech at Annual Dinner, 27 March 2015: the Make-up of a Great Club
4. Sports History: a Caribbean Blind Spot
5. Indelible Images of Excellence: the Greatest Cricket ever Played
6. Tony Cozier: Keeper of the Flame
7. Heaven s Great Invention
II. TENNIS AND THE SHAPING OF IAN S WORLD
8. Early Memories of Tennis
9. Georgetown Cricket Club s 125th Anniversary Dinner: a Tribute and Toast, 1 October 1983
10. Supreme Fitness
11. Encounter with Genius: Maureen Little Mo Connolly
12. The Professionals
13. Should Champions be Chaste?
14. McEnroe
15. Memories of Brandon
16. A Few Cheers for Failure
17. Sporting Memories
18. The Tennis (Poem)
19. Training Run (Poem)
20. Memories of Friendship
21. Well-Remembered Friends
III. THE INVIOLABLE SPIRIT OF SPORT
22. Can one choose to be a Genius?
23. Genius in Sport
24. Conscience in Sport
25. Sport is not a Game
26. How Money Poisons Sport
27. Disgrace and Ben Johnson
28. An Olympics Memory: Ben Johnson
29. What it takes to Win
30. The Sadness of a Dream Come True
31. The Divine Right of Khans
32. The Make-up of a Great Sportsman
33. Mental Control (and Terrence Alli)
34. The Olympics
35. Three Sporting Myths
36. Why the Games will Live
37. The Important Unimportance of Sport
38. More than a Matter of Life and Death
39. Grace under Pressure
40. Ban Boxing!
IV. IAN S HERO: THE MERCURIAL BRILLIANCE OF ROHAN KANHAI
41. Five Great Berbician Cricketers
42. Rohan Kanhai: Batsman Extraordinary
43. Judging the Greatest
44. Kanhai at Bourda, 1956 (Poem)
V. CRICKET IN HIS SOUL: CELEBRATING THE MASTERY OF THE WEST INDIES
45. Cricket - A Hunger in the West Indian Soul: The Inaugural Sir Frank Worrell Lecture, London Metropolitan University, 2 June 2005
46. Remembering WG Grace (1848-1915)
47. An Immeasurable Loss to West Indies Cricket
48. Only One Mek So : A Tribute to George Headley (1909-1983)
49. Cricket s Most Memorable Over: The Tied Test, Brisbane, 14 December 1960
50. The Best-ever West Indies Team 1963
51. The Jackdaw and the Eagle
52. Lara s 375
53. Golden Boy, Brian Lara
54. Shivnarine Chanderpaul
55. Shiv: A Master still at Work
56. Shiv: Becoming a Legend
57. How I Lost the Third Test for West Indies
58. Another Match for the Ages, The Adelaide Test, 1993
59. Cricket s Greatest Deeds
60. Records that Never Fade
61. Walcott
VI. LEADERSHIP: CLIVE LLOYD
62. The Twelfth Man s Name is Courage
63. The Right Stuff
64. The Ravening Pack
65. Taking Lollipops from a Baby
66. The Campaign against West Indies Cricket
67. The Most Important Team
68. Clive Lloyd s Last Tour: Australia, 1984-85
69. Where True Honour Lies
VII. VIV
70. Captain for Us All 1985
71. Tests of Allegiance
72. Vin Ordinaire
73. Memories: Viv
74. Massa Day Done (Poem)
VIII. ALSO RANS: THE USES OF MEDIOCRITY
75. They Also Ran
76. The Worst Batsman in the World
77. Instead of Blood
IX. A PROMISING AMBIVALENCE: WHITHER CRICKET?
78. Cricket Ritual and Renewal
79. The Last Days of Test Cricket 1988
80. Test Match Umpiring: Time for Reform
81. The Show Must Go On
82. Licket
83. The Loss of Elegance
84. Cricket Mystery which Needs Explaining
85. Faithful to the Cause
86. The Stuff of Legend
87. The Innings 2012
88. New Charter for the Spinners
X. CLOSE OF PLAY
89. Cricket and Old Age
90. Hitting the Wall
91. Do Not Go Gently
92. Be Quiet and Go A Angling
93. The Heirs of Ranji
94. Cricket: The Third Thanksgiving
95. My Bradman Letters
96. What the Earth Swallows is Soon Forgotten
97. Miracle
98. Farewell to Cambridge
XI. A WINDING ROAD TO DAMASCUS?
99. Licket no Longer
100. The Batting Bias in T20 Cricket
APPENDICES
I. Respect! The Sportsman as a Good Ambassador: Ian McDonald
II. Sports and Arts Highlights: Ian McDonald
III. Ian Archie McDonald: A Biographical Sketch
IV. Ian s Credo
PREFACE by Clem Seecharan
Sport in his Soul: Ian McDonald and the Pursuit of Beauty
I. ANTECEDENTS

Poetry, Beauty and Sport
At Cambridge 1951-55 I remember very well living in the two worlds of the Hawks Club and the Poetry Society I have never seen why poetry and the playing of games, intellectual and sporting pursuits, should not mix easily, each reinforcing the other in the enhancement of life.
IAN McDONALD
The trained body is as important as the cultured mind.
IAN McDONALD
The enhancement of life! In a piece written for the Stabroek News , Ian McDonald (1933-) encapsulates the central prompting of his vision - a view from his window that enhances his life: Many mornings standing by my window, I see a hawk fly from branch to branch in a tree. There is great beauty, with the early sun gleaming through the green leaves on its underwings. What folly to cultivate powers of dislike when, in the main of life, there is enough beauty and diversion to find for ourselves enchantment in every passing hour. The joy of life can suddenly strike you like a gust of wind off the sea . The piece is candidly titled: The Great Art of Having as Much Happiness as Possible . This is what this amazingly gifted man has lived by - former tennis player good enough to represent and captain Cambridge University, Guyana (then British Guiana) in the Brandon Trophy, the (British) West Indies in the Davis Cup and to play at Wimbledon; prizewinning poet; writer of more than fifteen hundred articles and essays; radio commentator of eloquence and distinction; and business executive in the sugar industry of Guyana and the region for over 50 years. Now 86 year