New book on West Indian cricket
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CANA - The most recent publication on the history of West Indian cricket appeared on local bookselves here this week. The book entitled "West Indian Cricket Triple Centurions. (From Tarilton to Chanderpaul)", is the work of Dr Winston McGowan, a senior lecturer in the Department of History of the University of Guyana. It is the third major publication on West Indian cricket, following his two ealier works, "Guyanese in India - West Indies test cricket 1997 and the 1997 West Indies tour of Pakistan and the Crisis in Caribbean Cricket", which appeared last year. Dr McGowan's new book was inspired by the brilliant innings of 303 not out, played by Guyana's most recent cricket hero, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, in January 1996 against Jamaica at Sabina Park in the opening round of the regional inter-territorial Red Stripe competition. That innings is the highest score and the first and only triple century by a Guyanese in the entire history the country's involvement in first-class cricket, eclipsing the previous Guyanese record score of 268 by Peter Bayley for Guyana against Barbados at Bourda in 1937, almost 58 years and four months before. Dr McGowan's new book, consisting of eight chapters and 136 pages, focuses on the eleven West Indians who have so far performed the relatively rare feat of scoring a triple centuries in first-class cricket. They were in chronological order: Percy `Tim' Tarilton (304 not out) in 1920, George Headley (344 not out) in 1932, Sir Frank Worrell (308 not out) in 1944, Sir Clyde Walcott (314 not out) in 1946, Jeffrey Stollmeyer (324) in 1947, Sir Everton Weekes (304 not) in 1950, Sir Garfield Sobers (365 not out) in 1958, Lawrence Rowe (302) in 1974, Sir Vivian Richards (322) in 1985, Brian Lara (375 and 501 not out) in 1994 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (303 not out) in 1996.
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