The Rude Boy stand has been taken down at the ARG. The once-famous double-decker terrace that housed Antigua’s greatest music entertainers is gone. Replaced instead with two shipping containers and a lorry trailer. The prison watchtower that stands over the road, where the legend goes that Viv Richards’s dad would stand and watch his son bat in the middle whilst keeping one eye on the prisoners under his guard, has had its view improved immeasurably. Nothing now in its way, but nothing now to see either.
“You had music from morning to night,” says James Stevens, Head of the Antiguan Umpire’s Association for the last 24 years and chance interviewee after he saw two English lads stumbling around the famous and dilapidated Antigua Recreation Ground
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“We had Gravy and Mayfield and the music,” Stevens recalls, reflecting on the famous names of those who performed outside the boundary rope of the ARG, as much as he does those that performed within it. “As a matter of fact, DJ Chickie the music master got man of the match in an India v West Indies game. You had three days rained out and he kept the crowd lively throughout the days.”
For someone who doesn’t believe in ghosts, a trip to The Rec is to have a go on a Ouija board for a laugh, only to feel your stomach jolt when the thing moves. The place is dense with history and with signs of life everywhere you look aside from the one place it matters. A shop within the grounds has three men sitting drinking a beer and eating some lunch, while the pavilion itself still operates in an administrative capacity. In fact, as England and West Indies were playing their first ODI on Sunday, the latest set of aspiring Level 3 umpires in the region were taking their final exams there. Something that Stevens himself would be overseeing, adding that that’s why he wouldn’t be in attendance at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium himself.
The watchtower of the prison in St John’s, Antigua, from where Viv Richards’ father is said to have watched him bat at the ARG
The watchtower of the prison in St John’s, Antigua, from where Viv Richards’ father is said to have watched him bat at the ARG•Cameron Ponsonby
Even Stevens, a measured man who grew up in the countryside of Antigua, fails to avoid hyperbole when talking about the ground.
“ARG as a cricket venue in the universe, probably has the most history.”
And he’s not wrong, in spite of the fact that that history lasted for just 22 Tests and 11 ODIs, spanning 31 years. Brian Lara’s 375. Brian Lara’s 400. Viv’s fastest ever Test ton and the highest successful run-chase in Test cricket all happened on the same patch of grass of one tiny Caribbean island that boasts a population of just 90,000 people.
The reason for the stadium’s demise is well-known. The 2007 World Cup was hosted in the West Indies, and Chinese money was used to build new stadiums across the Caribbean. The Sir Viv Richards stadium went up four-and-a-half miles down the road, and as a result, the ARG became second-choice. A few miles in the other direction and you also have the Coolidge Cricket Ground, where the Stanford T20s took place and which is now the headquarters of Cricket West Indies. Meanwhile, the ARG sits decaying. A once-iconic cricketing institution that is now a shadow of its former self. As an analogy for the state of West Indies cricket, it is almost too on the nose.
You still see cricket whilst travelling around the island. Kids playing at lunchtime, club players playing in the evening. The difference, Stevens explains, is that there was a time when you didn’t even have to look.
The consensus is that there are fewer people playing, but the exact reason why is less tangible. The myth that the Caribbean has fallen into the grip of basketball is exactly that. The two main sports listed by taxi drivers are football and cricket, and whilst basketball does, occasionally, get a mention, so do Playstations.
To an Englishman visiting, the activity on the island contradicts the narrative that the game here is dying. Cricket in the Caribbean is said to be in a worse state than it is back at home, but if you saw as much cricket in London as you did when wandering around Antigua, you’d consider the game to be in rude health. Perhaps it is merely the difference between something that was once a national pastime instead now being a national hobby. And when you only have 90,000 people to play with rather than 70 million, that makes a difference. The game is here. But as Stevens says, you just have to look.
It’s been 15 years since ARG last hosted a match, when the Windies held on to a thrilling draw nine-down against England. And beer bottles (presumably not from that same day, but you can’t be sure) are still scattered around the stands, which gape where randomly selected blocks of seating have been ripped out.
The history of the ground is more tangible than you could ever expect. And the gap that The Rude Boy Stand leaves provides a tangible reminder of what once was, in a ground that otherwise has an intangible aura.
“It was always a pleasure to come to ARG and watch the cricket,” concluded Stevens. And you wouldn’t doubt him for a second.
