… Sir Wes Hall advises budding cricketers
By Akeem Greene
Windies cricket legend Sir Wesley Winfield Hall in a charismatic address to the Rotary Club of Georgetown at their ‘World Understanding’ dinner held at the Pegasus Hotel on Friday, used spoken words to paint the picture of his illustrious career but most importantly left resounding advice for all budding cricketers.
Standing for over an hour in delivering the feature address, the 80 year-old gracefully connoted cricketers need to do the basics correctly from the infancy stages of their careers if they hope to reap long-term success.
“You need to learn the little things well and it will serve you a lot better later on. That’s why you see a lot of players might look good at school or at trials but when they get into the heat of the match they may not make it; they may not make because they were not at practice doing the little things right.”
Born in 1937 in St. Michael Barbados, the lanky right-arm seamer who was known for his elongated and angled run-up, remarkably had the ability to bowl long spells further explained it is not just about practicing but practicing the essentials in the correct manner.
“Practice makes perfect but you have to practice the correct thing or you will end up being perfectly wrong,” he expressed.
The Ordained Minister who took 192 wickets after making his Test debut in 1958 against India in Mumbai used the example of constant no-balls as an illustration.
“One of the most unfortunate things in West Indies cricket is when a fast bowler runs up and knocks the stumps out the ground but the umpire stretches out his hand to call a no-ball. Why is he doing that? It is because he is practicing it and it shows you need to do the little things right.”
Playing his last Test against New Zealand in 1969, Hall who has high score of an even and unbeaten 50 brought great laughter to the decorated audience when he told tales of times in the middle with skipper Sir Gary Sobers and being the ‘last man’ standing.
Those encounters and more so his years as selector and team manager and service as President of the West Indies Cricket Board (now Cricket West Indies) from 2001 to 2003, he had some technical advice for players.
“If you are a batsman you have to learn to occupy the crease since you don’t make a lot of runs in the pavilion; make your runs by occupying the crease, you must learn how to call and stop running out people. If you are batting, you learn to rotate the strike.”
He added, “When you are bowling you have to observe the pace at which you are going apply pressure and then you build pressure and then you take wickets.”
Effecting Change
Hall posited being able to effect change is a critical life skill that just not cricketers but everyone in society must understand.
“We human beings don’t particularly like change too much but change is imperative, there is a circle with things you cannot change and if you cannot change it, do not worry about it but the things you can change is important.”
“You can change your attitude, the best with a bad attitude is no longer the best and those are some of the things I learnt as a young cricketer.”
Rotary Club of Georgetown’s Foundation Director and former West Indies player Roger Harper thanked Hall for is quintessence also shared his fond memories of playing with the menacing bowling.
The Rotary Club of Georgetown Guyana was first constituted on May 20, 1959 and the ‘World Understanding’ event includes the anniversary of the first meeting of Rotary held on February 23, 1905, and as a chance for every Rotary club to pause, plan and promote the Fourth Avenue of Service – Rotary’s continued quest for goodwill, peace and understanding among peoples of the world.
