Sunday Sips with HG Helps | Ultimate cricket genius Sobers, the Desmond McKenzie pepper spray puzzle, At last, a non-traditional Festival song, and World Cup memories

 The ultimate cricket genius, Sir Garfield Sobers

The great man, Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, left us last week while he stroked his way towards the nervous nineties. The delightful 89 years that Sir Garry put on the scoreboard were full of meaning and substance.

He was truly the greatest talent that batted, bowled, in various styles, and fielded, all in one glorious package. 

I first saw Sobers in action in 1968 when, as far as I remember, I was in my first year at Belfield All Age School, later turned Primary School, in St Mary. My father, an avid cricket fan, had been giving me regular lessons about the greats of West Indies cricket – Sobers, especially, Seymour Nurse, Wes Hall, George Headley, Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott, Charlie Griffith, Deryck Murray, Rohan Kanhai, Lance Gibbs, Clive Lloyd and others.  

So off we went to Sabina Park, missing a day or two of school in the rush, for the second Test match of the 1968 series between the West Indies and England.

Sobers made zero in the first innings and 113 in the second, as the match ended in a draw. It was an experience that thereafter kept my eyes on cricket.

Later, I was fortunate to have met some of the same players whom I had been worshipping all along, interviewing some along the way, and even having a few drinks with them at times. From the list stated earlier, I met all, excluding Worrell. It was hard to determine who was nicest, but it came down to Nurse, Hall, Griffith, or one who came after them – Joel ‘Big Bird’ Garner, who severely tested my drinking capability one evening in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Sobers, while not as lively as some of the others, was a bundle of knowledge when you got him in the right mood.

I interviewed him twice – firstly with Maurice Foster on KLAS Radio in Kingston, and then at Kensington Oval – both memorable experiences.

One of the fondest off-the-field occurrences that I remember about him was during the West Indies tour of England in 1995 – a six-match Test series, which ended 2-2.

During the second Test at Lord’s, London, Sobers was covering the match as a commentator for one of the English radio stations, while I did likewise for the Jamaica Observer. We used the same entrance to access the media centre every day for the first four days, and on the final day when journalists turned up, the security guard prevented us from going in, saying that we had been using the wrong gate all along, and the correct one was a much longer walk away.

I turned away and up came Sir Garry for his radio stint. I paused a while to see how the guard would react to him, and when Sir Garry handed him his media pass, the guard was full of glee. “Sir Garry, Oh, Sir Garry, I am delighted to meet you in person for the first time. I saw you playing here at Lord’s and other English grounds over the years and you thrilled me so much.”

The guard praised Sir Garry’s exploits for another three minutes, giving statistics too, while the great man stood there smiling. Then came the magic moment. After the excitement, he told Sir Garry: “Again, it was nice to have met you sir, but you will have to use that gateway over the other side,” simply handed him his pass, and set his eyes on the next official trying to enter. 

It was like Sir Garry was set on fire. But although he felt ‘dissed’, he simply stared down the guard for a minute, before reluctantly walking away to the gate over yonder.

The Desmond McKenzie pepper spray puzzle 

I am still waiting to see whether or not the policeman who is alleged to have sprayed a substance that caught Local Government and Community Development Minister, Desmond McKenzie, in the face, will be penalised.

McKenzie, Member of Parliament for Kingston Western, complained about the conduct of the police during an operation in the Jamaica Labour Party stronghold of Tivoli Gardens last Tuesday. 

A shooting incident earlier, which resulted in a wounded man being taken to the hospital, apparently spurred protesters, who were joined later by McKenzie. In the rush, the MP got peppered, which is something that does not occur often, as police personnel usually keep their distance when it comes to people who are seen as symbols of power.

Here’s the big question: was McKenzie trying to intimidate the police by his presence, as some have claimed, and did he step out of line? Did he, under the circumstances, deserve what he got from the policeman, or was the young law enforcer out of order to have irritated brother, Dessie?

The reality is that if it were Desmond Missaman from Balaclava, who had gone to protect his friends from Tivoli, he could have been shot dead, based on how we see some members of the Constabulary behaving these days. The fact that the victim was Desmond the Most High meant that a little pepper spray would only serve to ‘warn’ him that things could have been different, had he been an ‘ordinary’ citizen.

It is always a dangerous thing to poke one’s nose into a police operation, and there are times when some members of the Constabulary will make an example out of you. I just hope that that was not the case along Darling Street last Tuesday.

At last, a non-traditional Festival song named Teet A Fi Me

The 2026 Festival songs are warming the airwaves once more. But again, much of the same lyrical diet is being served to the people at home and in the Diaspora.

There has hardly been a year when we are not reminded of our sports stars, beaches (despite being so difficult to access), the sun, or when rum, ackee and salt fish are not used in the packaging of those lyrical presentations.

Ironically, the most popular Festival song of all time, according to officials at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, is Cherry Oh Baby, sung by legendary Festival performer Eric Donaldson, which won the annual competition in 1971. That song had not one mention of any of the popular words normally aligned with the Festival. How come? It remains the strangest thing to me, a Festival man from the very beginning.

Independence time was my favourite from I was a boy, as there were so many attractions to fill your belly: Merry-go-round, Kumina, Jonkanoo, Denbigh farm show, and of course, the good Festival songs. Also, I had started to develop a dislike for Christmas, caused by too much work to ‘fix up’ the place, and having to settle for a Christmas gift solely, as my December 12 birthday was, according to one of my elders, ‘too close to Christmas, so is only one present you can get to cover both days.’

I can never forget Festival song entries, many of which went on to win, like Bam Bam, the first one (The Maytals 1966), Unity (second in 1967, with Desmond Dekker and the Aces) Sweet and Dandy (The Maytals 1969), Music Like Dirt (Intensified, with Desmond Dekker and the Aces in 1968), Bum Shaka Laka (Hopeton Lewis, 1970); later Sweet Jamaica (Eric Donaldson 1978), and Give Thanks and Praise (Roy Rayon 1987).  

Now, there is one song that stands out in my mind in this year’s nine approved – quite a strange one too. It’s titled, Teet (Teeth) A Fi Me, sung by Aba Jones and written by Oliver Ashley… a comical description of a man who left Kingston and headed to Montego Bay, where he found a young girl, whose teeth could not get her a seat at the emperor’s dinner table. They really needed the swift attention of a dental surgeon. So, he took her to Kingston and had the teeth improved. The catch in all this, though, was a warning by the man that he would take back the teeth if she ever cheated on him, saying flatly that her mouth belonged to her, but the teeth were his property.

Before long, another man entered the picture, visited the donor’s house while he was at work, and then bangarang … the ‘owner’ of the teeth came at the right time – just before any potentially reproductive action could take place between the fixed-up woman and the almost crowned ‘bunner man’. That was followed by a reminder of the original agreement by the teeth fixer, and a reprimand of sorts.

If the song were to win, it would be a refreshing change from the ackee and salt fish, bulla and pear offerings that we get each year.    

It is humorous, even hilarious. That’s my ideal Festival song. Even if it does not win, like Unity during the 1960s, I will treat it as my victor. 

By the way, I might be missing a few teeth myself, and I wonder if I could reach out to Mr Jones to recommend the most affordable spot to acquire them.

World Cup memories

Well, the FIFA 2026 World Cup will be examined longer and marked harder than any other tournament since the competition began in 1930.

One thing is certain. This tournament will be remembered as one of the most controversial, and perhaps the highlight would be the instruction given to FIFA by US President Donald Trump to reverse a red card penalty handed out to a US player.

As things came down to the final match, there were many happy moments, though, and the performance by some teams warmed the heart. Among them were Cape Verde, a tiny group of islands made into one, located off Africa’s West Coast, and Norway with hatchet man Erling Haaland.

In the long warm-up to the final between Spain and Argentina, tactical blunders by teams made them pay a heavy price. England headed that list in the semifinal against Argentina, by trying to defend a one-goal lead with 30 minutes remaining, against one of the best attacking teams. It was an amateurish display, just like that which involved Brazil and Japan in the quarter-finals, when Japan tried to defend one goal against, like Argentina, one of the best ‘dribbling’ teams, and also Switzerland’s cop out, also against Argentina.

The official World Cup autopsy will be revealed soon, but despite the hiccups, there were some solid moments that should never be forgotten.