Lara heaps praises as Queen’s Park celebrates milestone

Feature speaker, Brian Lara, toasted the club as an iconic institution as he regaled the audience with the club’s history, the most memorable moments at the ground as well as the list of accomplished sportsmen they produced as they became the fourth venue in the world to have hosted 60 or more Tests and 60 One Day matches .

Lara paid tribute to past players such as mentor Michael “Joey” Carew, Willie Rodriguez, Gerry Gomez, Bryan Davis as well as the club’s first president Sir Errol Dos Santos .

Trinbago Knight Riders manager Colin Borde was also hailed with the Kingston Trophy for dedicated service, while Kelwyn Hutcheon, club member and recipient of the Hummingbird Award, was similarly honoured for his musical contributions .

The club also celebrated Dwayne Bravo for his cricket accomplishments and ambassadorship over the years as well as cricketing icons Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Everton Weekes, Sunil Gavaskar, and the 2016 Parkites team who won the national treble this year - League, 50-overs and Twenty20 crowns .

The left-hand legend also reminded that while Queen’s Park churned out West Indian stars such as the Bravos and Sunil Narine, it was also known for hosting the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, Nelson Mandela, Pele and Muhammad Ali. The four-hour long ceremony also saw Lord Relator pay tribute with his infamous 1972 hit “Gavaskar” and Super Blue evoking nostalgia with his 1995 Road March tune “Signal For Lara” to remind us of a time when local music was relevant to sport .

“Disbelief” is how Lara described his first Test match at the Oval in 1993 against Pakistan in a 204-run win as he made six and then threw away his wicket by padding onto his stumps for 96 off leftarm spinner Asif Mujtaba .

However, he beamed when correlating to the packed audience how proud he felt ten years later against Australia .

Lara made 91 and 122 as he revealed how Ramnaresh Sarwan left him to fend the “fastest spell of bowling” from Brett Lee. “I dropped my bat to the ground and held up my hands to the members and to the fans to say ‘Thank you’ for waiting on me for so long,” Lara said to a round of applause .

He touched on his boyhood love for the club, transitioning from his Fatima and Harvard Coaching Clinic days, to being groomed by the Carews. Lara stated that his infatuation began as an eight-year old in 1977 who “fell in love looking at the scoreboard when my father packed the car with food, drinks and bodies and took us at 5 am to line up to see Pakistan!” He continued on how he began working the scoreboard at the Oval growing into a junior member and eventually, the club’s icon .

He revealed that as a captain, it was always perplexing judging what to do on the unpredictable Oval wickets but that was part of the magic of the ground. The Santa Cruz native also touted the evolution of the club, now with Women members as well as a Women’s football team, and how Dos Santos acted against the Queen’s decree by allowing the club to reap revenue off non-cricket activities. Lara also hyped the football and lawn tennis accomplishments of the club since inception alongside the new squash facilities, stating this “was all part of how we carry forward excellence in motion.” He pointed to versatility and diversity as pillars they have progressed with .