In India almost all sports grounds are named after political leaders. In Hyderabad we have a Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium, GMC Balayogi stadium, Rajiv Gandhi stadium and Kotla Vijay Bhaskar Reddy stadium while across India are stadiums named after Modi, Jaitley, Nehru and minor political leaders. Very few sports stadiums are named after sports persons.
In the West Indies there are no stadiums named after politicians. Some are named after their highly accomplished players. And then there is the famous Sabina Park stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, which is named after a former slave.
Author Shalman Scott, writing in the Jamaica Observer, states that Sabina Park was a slave who murdered her little child because she did not want the child to grow up into slavery like herself. Being a slave she was forced to give birth to a baby under unfortunate circumstances.
Killed her baby in despair
But in a fit of despair and anger she killed her own baby because she didn’t want the baby to grow up and suffer like she had done.
After her murderous act she was tried and hanged. But her act of rebellion against slavery was hailed and today a stadium stands in her name in Jamaica.As a slave, Sabina Park was owned by Joseph Gordon, father of a national hero, George William Gordon who led a rebellion against the colonial forces.
Sabina was one of 17 slaves on Goat Island, a property also owned by Joseph Gordon.
Significance of the ground
The Sabina Park ground is perhaps one of the most significant in Test cricket history. It witnessed the first triple century in cricket when England’s Andy Sandham scored 325 against the West Indies in 1930. The 365 not out by Sir Garfield Sobers which stood as a Test record for over 36 years and Lawrence Rowe’s world record on debut of 214 and 100 not out were recorded here. But it was also the ground where a Test between West Indies and England was abandoned in 1998 because the pitch was unfit for play.
Generally the Sabina Park is a batsman-friendly ground and some huge totals have been registered. In 1930, England scored a mammoth 829 runs in 258.2 overs against the West Indies. This was the match in which Andy Sandham scored 325 in 640 balls. It became a world record and it was the first time that a batsman had scored a triple century in Test cricket.In 1958 West Indies scored 790 for three declared against Pakistan. This was when Gary Sobers created a new world record by scoring 365 not out with 38 boundaries.
In 1955, Australia scored 758 for 8 declared against the West Indies. Four batsmen crossed the three figure mark for Australia. Opener Colin Macdonald scored 127, the great Neil Harvey scored 204, while all rounder Keith Miller (109) and Ron Archer (128) were the other century scorers.
In all, thirteen double centuries and two triple centuries have been scored on this ground. It is not a big ground and can even be called tiny when compared to Indian cricket stadiums. Its maximum capacity is only 20,000 spectators. The George Headley stand which dominates the south end is currently the only stand in the ground named after anyone, and has a capacity of just over 6,000. But in terms of fame, it occupies a glorious position in the history of West Indies cricket.
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