In the bars, restaurants, nightclubs, the workplace, the living room, there is one dimension of the Shamar Joseph phenomenon being discussed – will he persist with test cricket or become intertwined with the lucrative T20 global leagues?

If Joseph should ask me about his choice of cricket format, I would suggest that he plays the format of cricket that will provide for his future.

At 24, Joseph should think of how much more years he has. Let us say he has 20. At 34, that is a young age. Will he have money to last him and his family for another 40 years? If he relies solely on money from CWI contracts, the answer is no. T20 leagues will bring an income that will be extraordinary when compared to CWI contracts.

There is always a difficult pathway one walks when one embraces patriotism and nationalism and the reality that one has to find resources for oneself and family. I offer Joseph my life experience and hopes he can learn a lesson or two from it. It feels ethereal to be a Don Quixote. But when you meet that woman you love and you marry her and children come, then, the reality begins to take shape that brings forward immense reflections.

I loved to fight for a better life for Homo sapiens and it felt good until I met Janet Kissoon and fathered Kavita, Farah Kissoon. You are no longer the Don Quixote you wanted to be because there is a little kid that has to be fed and has to be given the things in life that are beyond necessities and you as a father has to provide those things .

I ran around this country like a Don Quixote confronting every conceivable wrong I encountered and many times I couldn’t get to the places I wanted to go to fight because on the journey the car broke down. And Don Quixote was missing in action. Then one day, I looked over my shoulder and saw that the car could no longer carry me and I could no longer buy a replacement for it. Reality then became constant partner.

In my long praxis, one incident I will always remember because it showed sharply the almost impossible quest to harmonize patriotism and reality. I was part of a protest movement, the kind Walter Rodney organized in Jamaica and the kind Bob Marley sang about in his mega hit, “No Woman, No Cry.” So one night, I was the first to arrive, and my 15 year old RAV 4 was smoking from the hood.

Christopher Ram was the second person to appear and he said to me, “Freddie, you need a new car.” That was in 2012. I changed the RAV in 2018 after 22 years of service for a car that cost 1.8 million. I read in the papers recently that Mr. Ram has turned the sod for his new business office that would be built at a cost of 700 million Guyanese dollars. Good, for Mr. Ram! I wish him well. I spent 26 years serving the University of Guyana, and I can tell Shamar Joseph, I have nothing to show for it. It was a choice of patriotism versus reality, I chose patriotism. The rest is now history.

Joseph has already signed up for the Pakistan T20 leagued and in the coming months he will meet cricket stars from around the globe and they will offer him advice that comes from the heart, no doubt. I am offering Joseph advice that comes from the heart too.

The advice will be banal because humans have heard it so many times in their lives but it is a sermon that others preach to us because they care. The song is always that you must plan for your future. Joseph will know that as his children grow, and as he and his family get older, there are things that must be possessed. Those things you do not get freely from the supermarket. You do not get them feely from the airline companies. You do not get them after the warmest handshakes that you will always receive.

There will always be a clash between patriotism and reality and Joseph will see that unfolding before his very eyes as the months and years go on. The fact that he has accepted a T20 contract in Pakistan is indication that he is planning his future already. Love of country is a beautiful thing because it is the place that gave you birth. But being born comes with obligations, one of which, as the philosophers say, is to pursue happiness in life. I firmly believe happiness will remain elusive if you live in perpetual want.