Peter cried and cried

“After we lost the third Test against South Africa on that 1998 tour, I went to my hotel room and could not stop myself crying.” The words of the great West Indies cricket supporter Peter Matthews speaking to People about his experiences as a well travelled West Indian supporter.

“We went down to South Africa for our first full tour down there and the team were expected to gave a good account of themselves. However we played badly and I still think that we defeated ourselves on that occasion.” “After losing the first Test, I thought well a fight back is coming along somewhere. The second also went through the door and after the third was lost I could not help myself but to cry for hours. It really hurt, we wanted to come down here and gave those guys a cricketing lesson. What was also hurtful was the support we got from the locals and they were very disappointed that their West Indian heroes let them down.” Matthews— with the tallest hat in world cricket— made the trip to South Africa to support the West Indies team but suffered the ignominy of seeing the West Indies whitewashed in the five match series. “At the end of the third Test I left everyone at the ground and returned to my room where I had to let it out. Such is my passion for West Indies cricket. “I am going back down there at the end of the year and I am going for revenge. The scene is set with Brian Lara back as captain and the young pacers rearing to go at the South Africans. They are in the re-building phase and mark my words, we are going to rough them up.” “Not enough could be said of the great Brian Lara, he has shown the world what a gem he is. The man is one of the greatest to play the game and this time around I know he has something special in store for the South Africans. The fourth Test at Newlands will be Lara’s 100th Test and something is sure to play.” “I would not miss Lara’s 100th Test match for anything and I am getting the feeling that he has something special to gave his fans.”

Matthews has been an ardent West Indian supporter since the end of Gary Sobers’ career and has been with the team ever since. “Towards the end of Sobers’ career I started to follow the game and saw the great Rohan Kanhai, Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd,” said Matthews. His passion for the game grew and he started traveling around the West Indies 15 years ago to support the team. As his career as a businessman took off, Matthews became more comfortable and he started to travel further, reaching London and South Africa. He has steered clear of Asia for fear of sickness and violence but would like to visit ‘Down Under’ to take in cricket there. Looking forward to the tours ahead, Matthews said: “I was very happy to see the boys get a victory over Sri Lanka, I thought that if our boys had believed in themselves a little more they would have taken apart the Australians.” looking at the four tours ahead Matthews said that  the West Indies could climb up to number two if they beat South Africa and any of the other two teams.  “With some hard work this team can climb up to be number two and replace South Africa. What we need to do is pull a victory over them at home, which will be very hard. The team however has the capability to topple them.” Matthews can be seen at cricket grounds all over the Caribbean with his hats standing way above the others. His voice is regularly heard urging the players on and he will be looking to scream in delight in South Africa later this year.