Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport 
Maurice Foster at his KLAS FM office in New Kingston. - Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer
RECORDS, MEDALS and trophies aside, any athlete's greatest honour is to represent his or her country.
To don the national colours in any competition at any level is special and it's something that few can boast and most can only ever dream about.
Living the dream times three is Maurice Foster who must be about to make some sort of Jamaican sporting history.
Next month, Foster, the popular KLAS-FM host and cricket commentator, will tee off with Bruce Lyn in the super seniors section at the Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships (CAGC) in St. Kitts, and thus will appear in the green, gold and black in a third sport.
LONG-HELD AMBITION
The former Jamaica table tennis champion, long-time cricketer at the regional level and for the West Indies and now national golfer admitted recently it had been a long-held ambition to find a third sport to play for the country.
However, it all started with the little, white ping-pong ball in the early 1960s.
"I first represented Jamaica at 16, shortly after I had won the All-Jamaica title at trials," said Foster, 62, of his first taste of international competition. "I had defeated two of the big names in Leo Davis and Fernardo Roberts to win the All-Island tournament and was selected in the first ever Jamaican team to play in a World Championship."
Unfortunately, due to a falling out between players and team management during the Caribbean Championships a couple of years later, Foster found himself banned from representative table tennis.
Exit ping-pong, enter cricket.
CRICKETING CAREER
"Cricket happened almost by accident," he said. "Despite playing table tennis at the international level, I also represented Wolmer's at hockey, lawn tennis, cricket, I was in the Class One high jump at Champs, football, I was like in everything," the all-rounder said.
"After the trouble on the table tennis tour to Guyana and the suspension of the whole team, at the end of it my father said we (Foster and his sister Joy) would not be representing the Jamaica again while the manager (Baz Freckleton) was around.
"Being very active, I decided I was going to concentrate a bit more on cricket. I established myself at Wolmer's and then we had all-schools cricket where we played in Barbados and Jamaica.
"Then, there was the Kingston Cricket Club which I joined when I was about 20 or 21 and, of course, then Jamaica and eventually the West Indies.
"Table tennis actually helped me in my cricket. I believe that every cricketer should play table tennis. I was never hit during cricket, and I think the reason is that table tennis really sharpens your reflexes, eye-hand co-ordination and movement."
GOLFING CHALLENGE
During his cricket career Foster flirted with golf but gave it up until he was looking for something to do when age and long, hot days in the sun became a bit too much.
"Golf was also very expensive to play at the time and I just couldn't afford it," he added. "Then when I stopped playing cricket I felt like I needed another sport to play because I had always been active and into sport so I went back to golf where timing and hand-eye co-ordination really helped me out.
"Golf has always been a challenge for me because everything has to be done perfectly or you are in trouble ... you are playing against yourself. It is the greatest ball game that I have played.
"I have been doing quite well lately though and hopefully I can take that form to St. Lucia. I'm looking forward to being in a national team again. I really can't tell any of my teammates anything about golf but I can probably give them a bit of my experience."
Ironically, neither table tennis, cricket nor golf are Foster's favourite sport.
"My first love was football. I played for Wolmers, Santos and Cavaliers. I believe if there wasn't a conflict of both (cricket and football), I could have played for Jamaica."
FINDING A FOURTH SPORT
Basically, Foster says, he loves competition and has no plans to give up his sporting ways any time soon.
"I want to compete well and help the team," he said of his coming foray into international golf which has been sponsored by the National Health Fund. "I don't like to play on teams that lose.
"I suppose after this I'll have to find a fourth sport. It was always an ambition to see how many sports I could play for Jamaica ... I don't know maybe I'm getting a little old now, maybe billiards, darts or something."
