A plan to rename Bay Primary School after National Hero Sir Garfield Sobers has gained early backing, with more than 300 signatures already submitted and the proposal heading to the National Honours Advisory Council, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced on Friday.
Sir Garry attended the school’s precursor, the Bay Street Boys’ School, one of the island’s oldest public primary schools. He made his earliest exploits in cricket on the Bay Pasture, which is now the playing field of the Bay Primary School, which moved to its Bayville location in 1958.
As lawmakers paid tribute to Sir Garry in a formal resolution of the House of Assembly, she said: “I would be surprised if there was anybody in Barbados who would find any difficulty whatsoever with the immortalising of a man from the Bayland, for his name to be attached to the school that will be responsible for the rearing of the majority of children coming from that community.”
The renaming would serve as a lasting source of inspiration for generations of children “to believe and to know that it is possible to be born where they were born, to be raised where they were raised, to go to school where they go to school and to achieve global excellence”, she said.
“There could be no more long-lasting and fitting tribute.”
The government also plans to publish a pocket-sized book titled 365 Not Out, intended to ensure the cricket icon’s values continue to shape future generations long after his death.
The publication will feature one lesson or message for every day of the year, drawn from the National Hero’s life and character, said Mottley, expressing the hope that it will be available by the beginning of next year and presented to every schoolchild in Barbados.
Mottley said she envisioned the publication becoming a rite of passage through the education system, allowing each new generation to carry Sir Garfield’s lessons beyond the classroom.
She argued that Sir Garry’s greatest gift to Barbados was not simply the records he amassed, but the belief he inspired in ordinary people.
“Government can build pavilions, fund programmes, and prepare pitches. But we can’t legislate belief.
“What Sir Garry did for this country was to make aspiration visible.”
She reflected on the public response following Sir Garfield’s death, noting that despite his final Test match appearance more than five decades ago, in 1974, Barbadians continued to hold him in the highest regard.
“How a man who did not play a Test match for the last 52 years… has been able to have such a commanding presence and respect in this country.”
“His character, more than anything else, stood up to define him as a National Hero,” she said, recalling how he would quietly encourage young cricketers with a few words rather than seek attention for himself.
The prime minister also used the occasion to challenge Barbadians to rethink how greatness is recognised.
“We must not believe that the only people capable of greatness are political persons,” she said, recalling that there had been debate in 1998 over whether a living sportsman should be named among the country’s National Heroes.
“He was never just a cricketer. He was always the greatest of all time. And he was always a Barbadian man exhibiting some of the best values that this country could have.”
She also reflected on how the plain-spoken cricket great was sometimes judged on his use of English, recalling his response to one critic.
“I never set out to be the best English speaker in the world,” she quoted him as saying.
“Too often in this country, people are looked down upon because they don’t talk the same way, they don’t look the same way, they don’t sound the same way.
“This country must forever be that place that accommodates people.”
She said the measures announced by the government were intended not merely to celebrate Sir Garfield’s achievements, but to inspire future generations to emulate his excellence and humility.
“The actions which we take as a government must not be to simply reflect on him and his record, but must always be a platform to see where the next Garry Sobers is going to come from, where the next Robyn Rihanna Fenty is going to come from.”
The House unanimously adopted a resolution paying its highest tribute to Sir Garfield Sobers, describing him as “an exemplar of excellence, dignity, humility and grace”, while extending its deepest sympathies to his family.
(SM)
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