A selfless contributor to youth development through cricket: Carl Evan Moore is a ‘Special Person’

Sep 06, 2009 News

“Why do I keep doing this? I don’t know…I guess the satisfaction is seeing the young players not only play for Berbice or Guyana, but become better people. When I see that…even with one of them…. I know I have not been wasting my time.”

By Sean Devers

Carl Evan Moore

Many persons take positions for personal gain, but Carl Evan Moore stands out like a shining beacon in a dark, stormy night for his selfless contribution to youth development through cricket.
It was John F Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” and Moore, a 57-year-old Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) executive from Berbice exemplifies this.
Long before his financial status was significantly enhanced on Sunday August 13, 2006 by Guyana’s triumph in the inaugural Stanford Regional 20/20 cricket tournament, Moore was using his own money and soliciting donations to keep the youths in his area occupied with cricket and away from crime, drugs and other social ills.
In fact, Moore (who single-handedly keeps the 5 teams from Tucber Park functioning) nearly lost his house due to financing the Tucber Park teams and players after taking over the club in 1998. His son Julian, who represented Guyana at the under-15 level in 2000 (he was the Berbice under-17 Coach last year) had just joined Tucber Park and being there was an influencing factor for his father’s involvement.
For a man who never played cricket at any level but spent the last 25 years involved in the sport as an administrator, his story is inspiring.
Moore was elected Assistant Treasurer of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) in 1984. In 1993, he quit his job as Assistant Town Clerk at the Mayor and Town Council of New Amsterdam and worked full-time with the BCB for a small monthly stipend. His countless hours spent at the BCB Office and cricket grounds, even as his family life suffered, emphasized an almost fanatical commitment to local cricket development.
Imagine the pressure on Moore to make his wife Ulex, with whom he eloped in 1977 – and who is not a cricket fan – understand why he spends so much time and money on cricket, especially when he can afford to live comfortably away from a game which is presently causing more distress than joy for West Indians.
Though Moore can now afford to provide his family with many things they once only dreamed of, his wife still ponders why he is unable to spend more time at home instead of running around the Caribbean with the National team, ensuring his Tucber Park youths are practicing in the afternoons, or journeying to Georgetown for Guyana Cricket Board meetings.
A humble individual, Moore still rides his bicycle (he has a car which his son drives) collecting scores to do reports for the media.
With the help of donations and his own money, Moore, the Chairman of the BCB and GCB Competitions Committee, helps to finance the studies and up-keep of many youths in New Amsterdam, sometimes unknowing to his wife.
“I hope she does not read this part,” Moore said with a laugh, adding that seeing young talent blossom and knowing that he might have saved a life though sports, keeps him going.
He keeps the sponsors of Berbice cricket happy by faxing his handwritten stories (which he does late at night) to the Media.

Moore speaks at an NBS cricket award presentation ceremony in Berbice

Moore’s story proves that once you do good, you are inevitably rewarded for your efforts. Even when funds were low and life was a struggle, providing for a wife and 2 little boys, Moore would spend ‘more than he had’ on ‘a bag of buns and some homemade drink’ for his young team or passage for them to get to the ground for a match, never once thinking that cricket would make him a millionaire.
“Winning the Stanford 20/20 was the best night of my life…I cried openly with the boys… these were tears of joy. The money changed my whole life and I can’t describe the pride I felt in being a part of something special…something historic for Guyana. I think the Stanford victory, at a time when crime was on a high and people were losing hope in many aspects of life, brought Guyanese together in a big way. I believe everyone in Guyana who had access to a TV watched that final and when we got home the feeling of national unity and pride was unforgettable,” Moore remembered.
After receiving the Stanford windfall many, not genuinely interested in the game, would have forsaken cricket to enjoy their personal life, especially at a time when Moore sadly admits that ‘the game is not what it used to be’.
Why do I keep doing this? I don’t know…I guess the satisfaction is seeing the young players not only play for Berbice or Guyana but become better people. When I see that…even with one of them…. I know I have not been wasting my time. I am getting old and I can no longer stay up late at nights to do reports for the papers…I try to do them in the morning or during the day….and I know that I cannot continue to do this forever. It’s becoming taxing, but I grew up poor and I want these youths to have a chance at a better life. Cricket is their talent, they need someone to help them,” Moore reasoned.
Moore opined that if you did not grow up poor it would be hard to understand what it feels like; to know that you don’t have to wonder where your next meal is coming from or how the bills will be paid.
“The 20/20 win has allowed me to be really thankful to cricketers and the hard work all of the players put in to make it happen. I am now comfortable and contented financially….that’s a great feeling to have…..and this allows me to put more effort into our youth teams. Working with youngsters gives you a chance to groom them….to mould them….and then see the difference you make,” Moore said.
“As Manager of the senior team it is more about getting them to work together as a team and trying to focus on the mental aspects of their cricket. I enjoy being able to rub shoulders with the Chanderpauls and Sarwans and making a contribution to Guyana’s cricket,” he added.
It’s very difficult – even for a millionaire – to sustain a cricket club. Moore says that while the youth players sometimes help with their traveling expenses to attend matches, he would never ask them (many are poor) to pay subscriptions. The Club has the use of the Berbice High School ground but have to pay for its maintenance while lunches and balls on match days cost money.
“If you ask some of the boys for $200 for a match you might never see them again and that talent would be lost. I tell the boys that what I am doing is not for me, but to see them play for Berbice and Guyana. I can’t describe the feeling I get when I see that happen and how frustrating it is when you see talented youngsters not willing to work hard or train on their own,” Moore said.
While Moore is afforded the opportunity of traveling the Caribbean as the Guyana team manager and earns a reasonable salary from that job, he says he most enjoys the role he plays in local competitions.
“I believe that apart from Coaches, competitions play the biggest role developing players since the more cricket you play the more experienced you become. I believe that is a major reason why Essequibo struggles although there are many talented players there. If there is not more cricket…. especially 2- innings matches…. things will not improve,” Moore opined.
Although it was 20/20 cricket which brought him fortune, he is not a big fan of that format of the game for the young players, developmentally, and says those now learning the art of batting and especially spin bowling should be allowed to play two-innings cricket.
Moore, who has one maternal brother and 10 paternal siblings, grew up in New Amsterdam but moved to Georgetown in 1965 when his mother (a midwife) was transferred to the City. He spent eight months in Georgetown and attended Tutorial High School for six months before re-locating to Bush Lot Village, Corentyne, when his mother was again transferred.
In 1977, a 25-year-old Moore met his wife and eloped to New Amsterdam to get married after serving as a Maths, English and History Teacher at Corentyne Comprehensive School.
Moore worked as a Clerk at the N/A Town Council and was later promoted to Cashier, Senior Clerk, Accountant, Treasurer and Acting Town Clerk from 1986-1993 when he quit after being overlooked for the appointment of Town Clerk.
He worked briefly in Insurance in 1994, but Moore said he was never really interested in looking for a job since cricket took up the bulk of his time.
“As you could imagine, my wife was not too pleased with my decision to make cricket my priority since I was only getting a small stipend from the Board. I must have been half-crazy at that time but cricket has repaid me.”
Moore says he was always a big cricket fan, and in 1984, he got involved with the sport through the late Leslie Amsterdam.
“We worked together at the Town Council and since Leslie was a Guyana selector and West Indies team manager at that time and I loved cricket, we had lots of arguments about cricket. He told me he would pull me into the Board, but I did not take him seriously, until I heard of my appointment as Assistant Treasurer on the news.”
Moore has been a Berbice Cricket Board official since then and became Competitions Committee Chairman in the early part of this decade after serving as Assistant Secretary in 1987. He was the BCB Secretary from 1992-2007.
Moore informed that after Guyana’s 20/20 victory he told the BCB that he would no longer accept the stipend which could be used for something else and explained that he got involved in writing cricket reports in 1987 after one of the major sponsors complained about the lack of publicity for their competition
“I contacted (the late) Nicola Cave (Hunte) from Chronicle and she was very helpful. I soon began doing the stories myself. In those days the Georgetown Media did not cover cricket in Berbice so I had to make sure the news got out. It’s a lot of work since we have more cricket here (Berbice) than anywhere else in Guyana, but I love what I do. It can be very frustrating and disappointing when you write out all the scores and then nothing appears in the papers. I do this for the youngsters and the sponsors since I don’t get paid for it,” Moore revealed.
The affable and hard working Moore is considered the backbone of the BCB and got involved at the GCB level from attending meetings as a Berbice delegate in the days when the Demerara clubs controlled Guyana’s cricket.
After the constitution was changed in 1991 to allow more voting power to clubs in Berbice and Essequibo, Moore was elected as Competitions Committee Head when Larry Ganpatsingh migrated.
Moore is pleased with the number of players from Tucber Park to represent Guyana at junior level and he is especially proud of pacer Jeremy Gordon who graduated to first-class level.
He is however disappointed that the club’s Women’s team, which produced present National female player Tremaine Smartt, is no longer functioning due to the lack of female club cricket. He is hopeful that Women’s club cricket will be re-introduced if that aspect of the game is to develop locally.
“Julian is soon to get his Level 2 coaching certificate and Tremaine is a Level 1 coach so now we have two qualified coaches in the club to help the kids,” Moore informed.
To emphasize Moore’s importance to Berbice cricket, my interview with him was interrupted at least 20 times by cricket-related phone calls.
Moore usually gets up at 5:15 and on weekends goes to the Berbice High School ground with his team around 6 o’clock to prepare the pitch before organizing lunch and balls for the game, if Tucber Park is hosting.
Very approachable and passionate about cricket, Moore says the decline in Guyana and West Indies cricket has a lot to do with the changing attitudes of the young generation and the lack of commitment to discipline, hard work and the understanding of what it means to represent your county or country. He feels money is now a bigger influence than pride, and says the absence of the older players at clubs, contributes to the problem. He says the cricket board is also not faultless, with some officials more interested in position than the work they do.
“Although the boys (Michael and Julian) are both big now, I try to spend more time with the family” said Moore, who is an avid collector of old movies and a ‘big’ reader.
He actually bought a movie guidebook in Jamaica last year with 17,000 of the world’s best movies and hopes to eventually own all of them.
While he is careful not to exhaust his earnings on cricket, helping the youngsters develop is in his blood and the job for him is not yet done.
In an age where selfishness and self-preservation are becoming normal traits, Carl Moore can indeed be considered a special person.