Nice to see Big Bird back where he belongs

IT was as though Roald Dahl's BFG bound himself in metres of flannels, found a sunhat as big as a sombrero and lurched into the world's most beautiful Test ground to stir imaginations and brighten the day. Seeing is believing.

Joel Garner, the Big Friendly Giant long known as Big Bird, is back in a city he considers a home away from home. The monolithic West Indian fast bowler plied his trade for Glenelg and South Australia in the early 1980s and he is among good friends and admirers in the City of Churches and Chappells.

Within hours of arriving, he had caught up for a quiet drink and chat with old teammates and was planning a nostalgic visit to 2 Rose Street, Glenelg to see his old digs where all the shindigs took place. He was in his late 20s then and the very thought of those salad days prompted the broadest of smiles and heartiest and deepest of laughs.

Friendly giant he is. This is indisputable. Always has been. But don't equate friendliness with passiveness. Garner, who will be 57 this month, is not a man to be toyed with when he is off his long run literally or metaphorically.

At the urging of friends and acquaintances in and well beyond the cricket community in Barbados, he was finally convinced to return to the game after a 10-year period where he actively pursued other interests.

He is now in his third year as president of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and is touring Australia as manager of and mentor to Jamaican Chris Gayle's team. It is a challenging assignment as Gayle and others were the target of his stinging criticism when they so controversially took industrial action this year.

Yet while the first Test result in Brisbane may have indicated some residual resentment from the dispute which so tarnished the image of West Indian cricket, Garner believes there is a new unity of understanding and purpose and is optimistic happier days are ahead.

"It was a period in West Indies cricket we could have done without," Garner said. "I think the players understand there is a need to move on for the sake of West Indies cricket.

"I will always have strong views. I'm one of those people who are not really too bothered who gets upset because I feel if I believe in something and believe in it strongly that is my prerogative. My views are personal. That is me; that is who I am."

Garner cares deeply about the integrity and history of West Indian cricket and hopes that his active service at the helm of the BCA will encourage other players of the 1970s and 1980s throughout the region to join him at the barricades. It is his calls to arms to ensure the future prosperity of West Indies cricket.

Certainly his administration has made some impressive headway with a five-year plan to upgrade every aspect of cricket in Barbados renowned for giving the cricket world the three Ws (Frank Worrell, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes), Garry Sobers and a host of champions. Indeed, he believes they are ahead of schedule on some key initiatives and is hopeful six professional teams will soon be playing on the island (population 270,000).

Garner and his ardent backers have become a catalyst for change in Barbados and he is anxious to extend that influence to the other sovereign nations of the Caribbean whose cricket has lost heart and direction.

He has established an excellent rapport with the Barbados government and through the Ministry of Education implemented a school program ensuring future generations understand the rich part cricket has played in the island's sporting and social history.

The government has also backed him to the hilt with the establishment of the Icons of Barbados a project celebrating the endeavours and accomplishments of the many cricket champions. It has provided and refurbished a plantation house directly opposite splendid Kensington Oval in the capital Bridgetown where Barbadians and tourists can gather to pay homage to the Icons.

Memorabilia and artifacts from the halcyon days along with footage of the legends in their prime is to be found in the museum as well as a merchandise shop along with a restaurant and bar where the champions meet every month to spin their yarns. Given Garner, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith are among those assembled, perhaps it should be bounce their yarns.

Another of his initiatives was to organise on behalf of the Icons the over-35s Masters tournament between the West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka and England presently under way in Bridgetown. He is determined to involve Australia from next year. Shane Warne has already assured Garner of his availability.

No doubt those lured by the thought of 10 days playing on and off the field in Barbados will earnestly hope Garner operates from the shortest of runs. Standing at 6ft 8in (2.03m) he was a phenomenal bowler who took 259 wickets in 58 Tests at a miserly 20.97. On-song he was nigh unplayable extracting wicked bounce from a good length.

For a decade he distanced himself from the game spending more time with his wife Heather, a schoolteacher, and proudly watching the development of his daughter Jewel, now 27 and a lawyer, who has just completed her Masters in English in London. To her dad's unbridled delight Jewel represented Barbados at the Miss Universe pageant.

During those years he worked as the community relations manager of the The Nation newspaper and then as circulation manager for The Advocate. He also had an editorial connection with the Barbados papers writing columns on cricket and other issues.

But in the end he could no longer ignore the plaintive appeals of mates and just sit in an office and watch West Indies cricket continue to free-fall.

"One of the things I live by is my mother's saying, `No one can make you happy. You are responsible for your own happiness'," Garner said.

"And I was very unhappy looking at what was happening in West Indies cricket. But I'm not here to make people happy. I'm here to make sure what we have works and to look at ways that can improve the whole system even if I upset one or two along the way." Garner is passionate in his desire to see a change of attitude throughout the West Indies cricket community. He is one man who understands the distinctly different and often incomprehensible patois from Guyana on the South American mainland to every island of the archipelago and he intends to break down all the accursed barriers.

"The old people at home say, `One hand can't clap, it will only wave'. We need to get people on board to do all the things that need to be done. It is difficult sometimes as people don't like change. But we must change; must."

It would be a very good thing if, together with the ICC, the countries which so profited from the West Indian charismatic dominance of the 1970s and 1980s lent a very big hand.