Stuttering son of Pomeroon farmer becomes Guyana’s top Commentator

Dec 25, 2008 Sports

---

The Reds Perreira story

By Sean Devers
The son of a farmer who could not complete a sentence without ‘stammering’ overcame several other hurdles, including a severe stroke in Australia, to become Guyana’s most illustrious Sports Commentator and a household name in cricket broadcasting around the world.
Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira was born 69 years ago in the Riverain community of Pomeroon in Essequibo.
The fifth of nine children, he spent his time as a little boy sailing and fishing and never got involved in organized sport until 1945 when he moved to the City after his father bought a house in Charlestown.
His father grew coffee and oranges and would carry timber and other cargo around the country and occasionally to Trinidad and Barbados in a boat he had built. His mother was a housewife.
“Sports was not a major thing in Pomeroon in those days but cricket was a big social outing for the entire family,” Reds explained. Reds’ ability as a cricketer was limited to his yard in Pomeroon where he played with a Coconut branch as a bat and a seed which flouted in the river as the ball.
He played some cricket at the St Mary’s school in the City but keen on football, soon formed a football team.
Although Reds rose to fame from broadcasting cricket, football was his first love and he made his first division debut as a 16-year-old Goalkeeper for the Georgetown Football Club (GFC).
His eyes lit up as he remembered. “We were playing against Infantry and they had Lewis Whitaker, who played for the Caribbean X1. We won 1-nill. Morris Pollard, who represented Guyana in Football and Hockey, scored.”
The veteran broadcaster did commentary on 145 Test matches between 1971 and 2005 and described Boxing, Football, Hockey, Table Tennis, Basketball, Netball and Motor Racing for radio.
He even did an outside broadcast stint on a Fishing Event at the National Park.
“Radio was big in those days (1950’s)….you had BBC coming through all the time and on short wave you could catch Radio Australia.
I would lie in bed and broadcast an imaginary Test match, imaginary football with Brazil playing England and imaginary World tile boxing,” Reds remembered.
Reds said in those days every Friday night the American Armed Forces Radio brought boxing from Madison Square Gardens.
“Back then I never really though of being a real Commentator since I stammered very badly,” Reds informed.
In 1965, in the hunt for greener pastures, Reds traveled to England to take his brothers to school and stayed there for five years.
He did several jobs including washing dishes in a Restaurant in Denmark.
He was the Convener for the West Indies Students Centre as he completed a course at a Physical Education school which focused on soccer coaching.
“I met England’s 1966 Soccer Captain Bobby Moore at that school and did pre-season training with Chelsea and Arsenal. I also organized a Guyana Celtics Basketball team in London before returning to Guyana in December 1967,” the garrulous Guyanese disclosed.
Not someone to sit around in an office, Reds said he got several offers to get into the Insurance business but declined because he had become hooked on sports.
“I began as a Free Lancer with the Government Information Agency (GIS) doing a weekly Magazine programme. Terry Holder and Cecil Griffith were there at that time,” Reds informed.
In October 1968, the Guyana Broadcasting Cooperation (GBC) was opened and Reds joined Cecil ‘Bruiser’ Thomas in the Sports Department.
“We provided energized sports coverage using the telephone in fierce competition with Radio Demerara, who had BL Crombie,” Reds, who lives in St Lucia with his Guyanese wife Zandra, disclosed.
The experienced broadcaster, who watched his first Test match in 1953 when West Indies opposed India, got his big break in 1959.
Two Inter-Colonial matches were being played in then British Guiana at the same time and two commentary teams were required.
“One match was at Bourda and the other at Rose Hall….I was interested in commentary and was called in by Rafik Khan of Radio Demerara and Kenny Wishart, who helped to select the Radio commentators for the cricket board.
I joined Norman McLean and Claude Vieira for my first match,” Reds, who has been working with the Ministry of Tourism in St Lucia for the past six years, remembered.
Reds went to work on correcting his stammering and was so desperate to get rid of it that he even tried Creole remedies.
He soon found that mentally working on the problem was the best way.
“I started trying to understand why I stammered and realized that it happened when I tried to pronounce words with R, S or F. I could not say Richardson or Rodriguez.
I knew you could not substitute names of people so if I wanted to be a Commentator I would have to learn to overcome my stammering problem.”
Deep breathing techniques and a growing self confidence helped. In 1971 he made his Test debut at Bourda when India toured the West Indies.
Although he was now a top cricket commentator and along with Tony Cozier, Brain Johnson and John Arlott described the inaugural World Cup final in 1975 at Lords, Reds was still directly involved in other sports.
He served as the President of the Guyana Basketball Association from 1969-1975 and attended three Central American championships.
He was Coach of the Santos Football club and the National under-23 side in the 1960s and commentated on three World Title fights.
Married twice but without children, Reds has devoted his entire life to sports and was behind the microphone in Jamaica when George Foeman fought Joe Fraser. He was also calling the action for TV when Guyanese Patrick Ford battled Salvador Sanchez in Texas.
The versatile Reds was Sports Advisor to former Minister of Sports Shirley Field-Ridley and served as Chairman of the National Sports Council (NSC) in the 1970s before migrating to Barbados in 1980 when he got a lucrative contract with the Caribbean Broadcasting Cooperation (CBC).
He spent five years with CBC and covered the 1984 Olympics.
A true Caribbean man, Reds soon moved to St Lucia to establish and head the OECS Sports Desk. He did the job for 12 years.
Free lancing for the Caribbean Media Cooperation (CMC) and the Voice of Barbados (VOB) Reds was still very active in his old age before a stroke in Australia in January of 1996 threatened to not only end his career, but his life.
“My left side went totally dead. I could not walk and spent a long time in a wheel chair. My speech was badly affected and I had to relearn to walk and swim.
That episode made me take control of my life once again. I think going back to work for the OECS was good therapy for me,” Reds opined.
Most people half his age would have retired but sports runs in Reds’ blood and he was soon again broadcasting at the highest level.
Reds is now the President of the St Lucia Amateur Boxing Association and says he wants to ‘give back something’ to the development of sports, a vehicle that has afforded him the opportunity to see the world, meet famous people and live a comfortable life.
He is a walking sports encyclopedia and is quick to offer advice and suggestions to young commentators but feels the standard and importance of radio commentary has been devalued by Radio stations in the Caribbean.
Despite Television, Reds thinks radio still has a role to play in developing sports, especially in the rural areas and urges young Commentators to do research and know the players and venues.
“They should strive to be true professionals, the basics never change” the veteran emphasized.
He formed the Reds Perreira Sports Foundation in December 2004 to assist sports in Guyana and pledged the first contribution of US$10,000 to the foundation.
“Others gave me many opportunities and I want to give back,” he disclosed from the press box as the Guyana National Stadium made its Test debut in 2008.
For the many commentators who were influenced by the magic of his words painting an intriguing picture in the middle of the night on radio from far away Australia, and the hundreds of youths whose lives he changed though Sports, Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira has already given back……many times.
It is hoped that this famous son of the soil is honoured while he is still alive to enjoy it.
Naming the Media centre at the Stadium after him would be a fitting thank you to a man who proved that where there is a will there is always a way.

---

---