The Woods

They say that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties and anyone who follows the game will attest to the many uncertainties and unexpected things they have seen in and around the game of cricket. 

Recently I attended a second division match at Empire Club where the home team was playing the Market Hill team from the parish of St. George. Two players caught my eye. The contrasting features between the two of them were too glaring to miss. One guy was skinny and tall and wore a grey beard. The other was a pint size schoolboy whose chin with not spring a beard for many years to come. These two players were at completely opposite ends of the age pole. 

At break time I contacted the older of these players to ascertain the story. And what a story it turned out to be. He is Charles C Wood age 63 and the young lad is his 12-year-old son Charles Imani Wood. It is not often that a father and son pair would play on the same team.

Mr. Wood grew up in the small village of Middleton, St. George and attended Workman Primary School but going on to the St. George Secondary School. His young cricket days were full of inventiveness, where young breadfruits were used as balls. Green Lemons and milk totts (small tins) also stood-in as cricket balls. A knitted or rubber strand ball- made from inner tube of a bicycle tire-was the best boys in villages like Middleton could get to play with in the 1960s.

His love for cricket and his natural ability to play found no support from his father, a hard work man who thought the bat and ball was a waste of time. Charles sadly would have to rush home after school to help his father take care of the garden and livestock. Time to play cricket hardly ever came but absence made heart grow fonder and Charles never stopped loving the game of cricket.

It was only in the early 1990s while playing tape-ball cricket in Eden Lodge that he was spotted by members of the Ipswich cricket team and was invited to play for the club in the intermediate zone. This was an opportunity to cricket that Charles may have thought had passed him but as the old people say ‘what for yuh, yuh will get.’  Charles Wood became a fixture in Ipswich before he moved on to play for the Barbados Community College (BCC)after he entered that education institution. Opening the batting for BCC, Charles made a century against his former team Ipswich. His former teammates had mixed feelings about his performance.

Mr. Wood would go on to play and captain various teams; he may have had a later than hoped for start in cricket, but he is getting the most out of it that he can. He now plays for Empire in the 2^nd Division and Masters. 

Charles Imani Wood just like his dad likes cricket and has good natural ability. He is more fortunate than his dad as he is getting that much needed support in his formative years. He is only 12 years old but has played lots of cricket. He has played for Workman Primary, Empire Juniors, and Empire 2^nd Division teams.

Charlie- as he is often called- is very pleased that he and his dad can be on the same side. He knows that it is something special as most of his other friends do not have fathers playing cricket. He does not feel pressured being a young boy playing on a side with men. Sure, he knows he is small, but he also knows that if he follows the correct ways of playing the game that his size will not matter. He considered himself a batting allrounder but will continue to develop his overall game before he settles into a position in the team. With Steve Smith as his batting idol and Mitchell Starc as a bowling mentor it is easy to see that he can become a batting allrounder. (Article by Christopher Williams)