My childhood memories of Calvin Roberts

May 02, 2015 Sports

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By Sean Devers
When my mom told me that Sports Journalist Calvin Roberts had died on Tuesday evening it

came as a shock to me even though I knew he was sick and needed a Kidney transplant. The saddest part was that he was only 43 and leaves to mourn a wife, two sons and a stepson.
I last saw Calvin on Saturday at the Busta final in Berbice and I remember telling him that he should not be writing stories now since the last thing he wanted was to fatigue himself and get a relapse. I was talking to him from personal experience.
But if you knew him as well as I did you would know how stubborn he could be and how much he wanted to prove that he was ok. If Calvin sets his mind on something it’s very hard to make him change.
I have known Calvin since he was 10 years old. He was two years younger than I and we grew up together in what some described as the ‘depressed community’ of West Ruimveldt. We both shared a passion for cricket and would play ‘Test matches’ against each other in my yard until the place got too dark to see the ball. He would be West Indies and I would be Australia and we would have to dismiss each other ten times before the other team batted.
Back then Calvin was always a confident little boy determined to one day become ‘important and respected’ in society to prove that the stigma unfairly attached to ‘West’ of producing only criminals and drug users, was wrong. And he did that through sports.
I took Calvin to join Malteenoes and when I made the Guyana under-19 team he would carry my gear bag as excuse for him to be around the Guyana players. He would get to bowl to the batsmen when we practiced on the Culture Center tarmac.
Calvin played a few games for Malteenoes at under-16 level as a hard hitting left-hander. In his mind he was Clive Lloyd and although he never ‘made it far’ in cricket, his passion for the sport never decreased and he was never far away from the game.
He claimed to have hit a six from the Transport ground, over Malteenoes and into Cosmos as a 15-year-old, I still smile when remember him saying that. Much later he played for Ace Warriors in the GCA second division competition.
I got involved in Journalism and radio cricket commentary, while still playing at the first division and senior level levels. When I left Stabroek News as a free lancer in 2004 to write for Kaieteur News, Donald Duff, the Sports Editor at SN asked me to recommend someone to do cricket for them.
I had read some of the stories that Calvin wrote for fun. I was impressed and asked him if he wanted to write on cricket. He was working as a Security Guard at that time and he said ‘why not’ and I recommend him to Donald.
He developed into a competent sports journalist in all sports. He also hosted TV Sports Shows on MBC Channel 93 and at the time of his untimely death he was Assistant Sports Editor at the Guyana Chronicle.
We would frequently engage in heated arguments about our cricket stories and when one time when someone stepped in thinking a fight would break out between us, former Guyana left-arm youth spinner Bevon Butts, who always argued with Calvin as to which one of them was the first to join Malteenoes, would say “Don’t get between those two, they come from the same place and go back a long way and understand each other”.
Bevon, who knew us since we were teens, was right. Even though we did not share the same view on many issues on cricket we remained close friends to the end and Calvin would often tell those in the Media booth of the days when he and I learned to play cricket on the road in ‘West’, the same road, by Gilhius Square which produced former Guyana and West Indies ‘B’ team wicket-keeper Kenneth Wong. I remembered those days and Calvin when I went to visit his relatives last Wednesday and saw that road in a most deplorable condition.
I remember the day before I left for Jamaica to cover the Guyana match there this year I spent over three hours chatting with Calvin on his bed at the Georgetown Public Hospital. We talked about many things and Calvin, who took over from me as the Media Team Captain when I was diagnosed with Brain Cancer, told me that he did not really believe a man his age could have Kidney problems and was not sure if he wanted to do the surgery in the event that the doctors were wrong. His son was there that day just like he was by his father’s side when Calvin made his last trip to Berbice to cover the RHTYSC’s Busta day/night final last Saturday.
When I last saw him two days before he died I urged him to not procrastinate and see how fast he could get the surgery done. The same thing my former Sports Editor Nigel McKenzie told me when I was scared to do my surgery.
Calvin, you are gone but not forgotten and your contribution to sports was tremendous and no doubt the Sports Minister will contribute to your funeral expenses since you worked at the State Media.
God has taken you home to a place where there is no pain or worry and may your soul rest in peace my brother and friend. I am in Barbados and hope to be back in time for the funeral.
I hope those who loved Calvin knows that God does not do anything without a reason even if at times of grief that reason is hard to understand.
And don’t argue with God about cricket in heaven buddy……(sad laugh).

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