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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 22 JANUARY, 2017
CAMPUS NEWS
Cane Farm Sports Club
came out victorious at the 2017
UWI-UNICOM T20 Tournament, which concluded after
the two week long tournament bowled off on January 5.
Twelve teams in total took to the field, with the top two
advancing to the final match which took place on Sunday
15 January at the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Ground, The
UWI SPEC. Cane Farm successfully defeated first time
tournament participants, Demerara Cricket Club. The
Guyanese team fell to the local boys by 67 runs. Roshan
I remember it well,
as did everyone whose eyes witnessed
the event. It was the ending of the 1980 Jamaica cricket
season, and I was called upon to bowl the last over in a
tense match between The University of the West Indies
(The UWI), Mona Campus and Kingston Cricket Club at
the University.
With the opposition requiring just a few runs to win
andThe UWI in need of the last wicket I nervously bowled
the most ordinary, unacceptable of balls. It was wide and
short outside the offstump and the batsman, seeing glory,
looked to the point boundary and swung.
What followed was a bespectacled, excessively afroed,
Venner in his customary second slip position diving full
stretch to his left, eating grass along the way, and emerging
from his undignified posture with ball held aloft!
The batsman stood his ground in shock and awe. But I
had seen Venner do this kind of thing before. Everyone in
the area, overwhelmed in jubilation, jumped upon Venner
as he admonished us to watch out for his glasses.The umpire
raised his finger. Then he calmly walked over to us and said
to Venner, “I didn’t go to church this morning, but thanks to
you I know that God is alive because I have just witnessed
a miracle.”
This is how we knew the visionary Venner; always
focused, always giving of his best for the team, always
celebrated for his extraordinary efforts. The tale of the
miracle in the middle of a dramatic moment is but a
metaphor through which we can view the journey on earth
of this spirit that was Sir Dwight.
A Tribute to Sir Dwight Venner
B Y S I R H I L A R Y B E C K L E S
Thousands of his cohort bonded with him at Mona
as the 1980s transitioned the region. As some comrades
stepped back and came forward as consultants, Venner’s
vision was to think and act with consistent personal and
public coherence. For him remaining true to core values
was top priority. The praxis of economic development was
always linked to his commitment to social justice. It was
within this vortex of progressive possibilities that Venner
was distinguished.
Sir Dwight traced the source of his tremendous courage
and commitment to his “Mona making.” He loved his alma
mater and came to see the future of the Caribbean through
the lens it provided. Prepared well for public service, he
began his monument building in the “Enterprise of the
Indies,” as an economist who was later reinvented as a
central banker. As Governor of the Eastern Caribbean
Central Bank, and architect of the deeper integration of the
OECS, he showed the wider region how to proceed with the
functionality of regionality.
Working with his political and civil society colleagues
he took the OECS out to the boundary’s edge of leadership
in CARICOMand gave us all an example of what is possible
with hard work, faith, trust and confidence. Here was a
brother whose soul, heart, and intellect resided in the same
space; he represented a unique integrity that rejected the
contradiction between the personal and the public.
Sir Dwight was a leader in the generation that followed
Sir Alister McIntyre and William Demas. Surrounded
by intellects as sharply as Ralph Gonsalves and Keith
Mitchell, he took to the development field with passion and
determination to bat for his people in need of good runs
as they moved to the rendezvous of victory. No region has
ever prospered without the resolve of comrades such as Sir
Dwight. No community can persist with resilience without
the inculcation of his kind of consciousness in the spirit of
those coming behind.
The UWI is honoured to have assisted in the making
of a special son who was exclusively engaged in his service
to region. All of us within the academy and beyond its
boundaries shall miss the presence of his personhood, but
we shall mightily remember with delight our Dwight. We
salute the distinguished Venner family for their sharing
of this special soul and we stand with them in both their
reflection and celebration.
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles is the 8th Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies. Prior to this, Sir Hilary was Principal and
Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University’s Cave Hill Campus in Barbados for thirteen years (2002-2015)
CANE FARMBLOWS AWAY DEMERARA IN UWI-UNICOMT20 FINAL
PHOTO: 2017 VICTORS CANE FARM
Primus of the triumphant Cane FarmwonMan of theMatch
while the Man of the Series award went to Gajanand Singh
of Demerara. Teams competed for $70,000 worth of prize
money, with the winning team receiving $40,000 in cash
and a champion’s trophy. Ms. Neela Labban, Marketing
Director of UNICOMcommended the spirit of camaraderie
and sportsmanship that the Tournament showcased and
she expressed the company’s pride in their partnership
with The UWI.
The official results of the final matches are as follows:
FINALS: JANUARY 15 AT 6PM
Demerara Cricket Club vs Cane Farm
Cane Farm - 217/7 in 20 overs
Evin Lewis - 90 (35) 10-6’s, 6-4’s
Roshan Primus - 43 (18) 3-6’s, 4-4’s
Lendl Simmons - 26 (27)
Sherfane Rutherford - 3/32 (4)
Kellon Carmichael - 1/10 (4)
Demerara Cricket Club - 150 all out in 17.1 overs
Gajanand Singh - 64 (39) out
Kellon Carmichael - 34 (21)
Keemo Paul - 25 (11)
Roshan Primus - 4/39 (4)
Ravi Rampaul - 2/19 (3.1)
Imran Khan - 2/34 (4)
Man of the Match
- Roshan Primus
Other awards
•
Man of the Series
Gajanand Singh (Demerara) - 327 runs, 5-50’s, 4-not outs
•
Best young player
Keemo Paul (Demerara)- 6 wickets, 66 runs, SR-188, avg 34,
•
Most wickets
- Ravi Rampaul (Cane Farm) – 11
•
Most catches
- Rashad Forde (Club Crusoe) – 6
•
Most 6’s team
- Cane Farm - 61 in 4 matches
•
Biggest 6
- Anthony Simmons
almost top of SPEC building 110-120m
•
Most disciplined team
- Merry Boys
