FOLLOWING a successful launching of his book ‘Living My Dreams’ at the Guyana Pegasus last June, well-known cricket commentator Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira will be conducting an autographing exercise at the Carmichael Street-based Oasis Café tomorrow. ‘Living My Dreams’ tells the story of the life of Perreira, from his formative years in the little known village of Pomeroon on the Essequibo River to the top of his game as a sports commentator, traversing the world where cricket had become his saving grace on many occasions.
It was not an easy road to the top but it was engaging and challenging and triumphant. All of that is captured in the book – overcoming a serious stammer to become a well-known commentator.
Perreira also overcame ailments with cricket coming to his rescue, overcoming a discriminatory ban and many years later legally challenging and clearing his name for a continued triumphant career as a cricket commentator.
The book paints a picture of Perreira’s persistency throughout his long career as a player of various sport disciplines, sportscaster, and sports organiser and with reference to his career as a sports organiser, Perreira said, ‘If I have saved a few lives in my time, I am happy’.
Therein lay the true mettle of the man – his concern for people and how they may improve their social standing through sports.
In his own words, this is how Perreira saw his involvement in sport, “My focus was seeing people becoming better people … If they become a better player, that’s good but to me producing a better citizen is the important thing’.
The book, as with autobiographies and memoirs, starts from the beginning and runs chronologically to present day.
Life in the Pomeroon without electricity and where everything was done under mosquito nets after dark, life in the harsh Charlestown ward, the world of work where he managed to eke out time to engage in sports, forming the first ‘dream team’, his first break as a commentator, his first assignment away from home, meeting the greats in the game and working alongside the greats in the business of broadcasting.
Perreira gave credit to his mother who allowed him to fantasise – she allowed me to stay in bed and do imaginary commentary on cricket – Kanhai batting, Sobers bowling, and boxing from Madison Square Garden, and England versus Brazil at Wembley which sort of helped me use words that I would not normally encounter in the normal run of things.
The cost of the book is $3 000 and while Perreira, who delivered a moving feature address at the recently held Guyana Cricket Board awards ceremony last Wednesday night, will be autographing his book from 08:00hrs to 17:00hrs at the venue, he would personally like to thank William Walker and the management of Oasis Café for their support.