Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
MY FATHER, God bless his soul, used to say that you can judge how great a man is and exactly what people think of him by how many people attend his funeral or the thanksgiving service for his life, who they are, how many tributes are rendered, and what is said during the tributes.
According to Papa, the more people, especially from those numbered among the elite of the society or a section of the society, the more tributes, and the more glowing the tributes, the greater was the man.
Well, if that is so now as it was in Papa's day, then although he was tough and firm, although there were a number of people who disliked him, probably because he never compromised his principles regardless, Allan Rae was a great man.
REMEMBERING SOMEONE SPECIAL
Fifty years after hanging up his bat as a Test cricketer, and 15 years after stepping down as the president of the West Indies Cricket Board, people packed the St. Andrew Parish Church on Wednesday to say farewell at a thanksgiving service for his life.
Apart from the members of the national cricket team and the president of the West Indies Board, the congregation included government ministers past and present, presidents past and president of many national sport associations, champion sportsmen past and present, including track legend Herb McKenley.
There were as many as four tributes, and they all remembered a man who, according to them, was someone special - someone without whom cricket in Jamaica and in the West Indies might not have been what it is today.
"I have come not to bury him but rather to praise Allan Rae's sterling contribution to the game of cricket as player, administrator and godfather," said Jackie Hendriks, and, like the Minister of Local Government, Community Development and Sports, Portia Simpson Miller, he certainly praised Rae.
"During his term as president of the West Indies Board, Allan had to deal with the South African issue and those that were actively supporting their re-entry into international cricket. Allan was resolute and determined that this should not be countenanced until certain things were corrected and a clear oath to an inclusive society was achieved."
Minister Simpson Miller said "He batted well. He made his
centuries, and now at the close of play we pay tribute to this outstanding cricketer and administrator to the man who demonstrated his administrative skills during the crisis of cricket and apartheid and his negotiating skills during the Packer affair."
DESERVING TRIBUTE
"I do not know Allan Rae as many of you do," said Reverend Canon Robert Thompson. "I do know, however, of his legacy of his service to his fellowmen."
It was a great farewell to Allan Rae, and he deserved it. Not many Jamaicans, in fact not more than one or two, have come off the field and contributed so much.
Papa should have been at the St. Andrew Parish Church on Wednesday to hear Jamaicans lifting up their voices to the heavens while singing songs like Praise my soul the King of heaven, O God our help in ages past, and The Holy City the song with a chorus that says "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Sing for the night's o'er! Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna forever more! Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna forever more!"
Like Jackie Hendriks at the end of his tribute, like so many who were present, Papa would have asked: When next will we see another Allan Fitzroy Rae?
