“Michael Conrad “Joey” Carew – West Indies’ Mr. Cricket”

Jan 16, 2011 Sports

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By Colin E. H. Croft

I hate funerals!  To me, they, normally, are just social events, organised by very guilty, hypocritical people, trying to make up for what they never did in the departed’s life!
Have you ever wondered how come people will do anything possible to attend a funeral – travel from hell – especially for a relative’s funeral, when they had not seen the deceased for eons?  How come they never visited when the dead was alive?
However, sometimes, funerals can even be changed to great, magical celebrations!
In the last 20 years, I have gone to four funerals – Stafford Croft, 1998; Malcolm Marshall, 1999; Roy Fredericks, 2000; and Michael “Joey” Carew.  One was my brother. The others were just as important, as they were great friends, and West Indies cricketers.
Last Friday, we had a celebration, not a funeral, for Joey Carew’s truly wonderful life!
Sir Ellis Clarke, Trinidad & Tobago’s last Governor General, and 1st President, also died recently.  He was afforded a state funeral.  I believe that even though Sir Ellis was monumental in T&T’s history, Joey’s influence worldwide far outstripped Sir Ellis’.
By the turn-out of West Indian cricketers, Joey had a “State of West Indies’ send off!
No-one who had been involved in West Indies cricket, especially over the last 40 or so years, and no-one who would have enjoyed our cricket world-wide; billions; including that most dominant period of our cricket; 1976 – 1995; when we beat that same world at their own great game, could have done so without the absolute influence of Joey!
Michael Conrad ‘Joey’ Carew was the only West Indian that I know that I would give the moniker – “Mr. Cricket.”
It is because of him that the entire world came to know about Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Ritchie Richardson and Brian Lara, to name just a few. Joey had been involved in direct West Indies cricket from 1955, when he made his 1st class debut for Trinidad & Tobago, aged 18.  His long innings ended last week.
If you played for West Indies between 1976 and 2006, you could not have done so without Joey’s input; as selector, chairman of selectors or, to his dying day, mentor.  The man’s influence on West Indies cricket has been extremely profound.  He helped us all!
FTR:  Joey played only 19 Tests, making 1127 runs with average 34.15, and also 129 1st Class games; 7,810 runs, average 38.47 – good, but not remarkable returns.
However, had he been playing now, he would have been a West Indies super-star, at least.  Consider that a full WICB retainer contract had been given to such truly nonentity cricketers as Devon Smith – 32 Tests, 1370 runs; average 25.37!
Carew’s cricket – he made his Test debut on that great West Indies 1963 tour to England – was for another time, when players actually thought the game out, minute by minute, and also played it with such gusto and intensity that had to be experienced to be believed.
He also had to contend for a West Indies opening position with such Caribbean cricket luminaries as Roy Fredericks, Steven Camacho, Easton Mc Morris, Seymour Nurse, Peter Lashley, Brian Davis and the best of them all, Conrad Hunte.  Those were just the opening contestants then.  Can you believe the cricketing gold we had?  Unbelievable!
Yet Carew survived, with his diabolical memory, frivolous diatribes that could have you in laughter and stitches for hours, and his very serious, honest analyses of the game.
When I last spoke to Joey, last year, he continued to try to convince me that it was he, not as is normally suggested, Clive Lloyd, the then West Indies captain, who, in 1976/77, had the insight, foresight and belief enough to select Garner and me to the West Indies team, especially when we had, between us, the grand total of only five 1st class games.  That conversation had been going on since I became the Sports Journalist in 1994/5!
Like everyone else, later, I always sought out Joey, wherever we were, for information, assessments, overview and just fun, about our cricket.  The man was fully encyclopedic.  He could recount any instance about any cricketer that he had seen over the years.
Earlier, I had seen Joey play many times at Guyana’s Bourda Oval, while in high school and as a club cricketer.  But I only met Joey for the 1st time in 1975, when I played in T&T, for Paragon Cricket Club, while on a Guyana Government navigation scholarship.
Paragon’s team then had such T&T stalwarts as Pascal Roberts, Prince Bartholomew, Richard Gabriel, Leo John, Jack Noriega, Bernard Julien and Ron Faria, a very powerful unit indeed.  We won everything that year, playing on both matting and grass pitches.
Carew, by 1975, had stopped playing for West Indies and Trinidad & Tobago, but he still captained Paragon’s arch rivals, Queens Park Cricket Club, whose playing field is the revered Queens Park Oval.  Those games were the closest I have come to cricket war!
Yet, it was what Carew said to me after such a game, at QPO, one in which I actually got him out, caught at fine-leg, after he had hooked, that has stayed with me to this day:
“Crofty, you will play for the West Indies soon,” this assessment, mind you, about a cricketer who had not been called to Guyana’s trials after a debut game in 1972, aged 18.
He continued:  “But I want you to stay and live here in Trinidad & Tobago.  If you do that, I will guarantee that you will do well as a cricketer, and doubly so, as a professional.  I will make sure that we look after your education, your well being and your cricket.”
While I could not remain in T&T; I was on a G of G scholarship; I did play for West Indies.  Also, I have lived to badly regret no taking him up on that offer, to his dying day, considering what Guyana has meted out to me.  That is another story for another time!
What Carew did was to follow my cricket everywhere, making me think that I was special, not knowing that he had that same attitude for every player that he picked.
He would come to the dressing rooms often, ala Clyde Walcott, Joe Soloman and Jackie Hendricks, other selectors, to encourage, or simply to hang out – one of the boys – having a casual, friendly beer.  I know that I will miss the man much; very much indeed!
Some say that he liked horse racing more than cricket.  I do not know about that.  I would say that he liked them equally, as he and Michael Holding had almost daily conversations on trifectas, form and blood lines, but Joey also kept fully up to date with cricket.
We all know that he loved his family; wife Marion, and the boys, Michael and David; and his Catholicism.  Personally, I thank them for sharing, so unselfishly, this real icon of West Indies cricket with us.  In my mind, no-one have done more!
According to the priest last Friday, Joey attended mass every Sunday.  That describes a very complex man, near to God, but very human too!  RIP, Joey!

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