Cricket Leg­ends of Bar­ba­dos Museum

Located just a stone’€™s throw away from leg­endary cricket venue, Kens­ing­ton Oval, Cricket Leg­ends of Bar­ba­dos Museum is located at Herbert’€™s House in Fontabelle, St. Michael.

With a mis­sion to ’€œeffi­ciently mar­ket world-class prod­ucts and ser­vices which reflect the rich legacy of West Indies cricket’€ they cer­tainly do just that while hon­or­ing the 43 Bar­ba­dian crick­eters who have all shaped and changed the legacy of West Indies Cricket. Notable names among these crick­eters are Sir Garfield Sobers, the 3Ws (Frank Wor­rell, Sir Ever­ton Weekes, Sir Clyde Wal­cott), Desmond Haynes, Sey­mour Nurse, Joel Gar­ner, Wes Hall and Char­lie Griffith.

This museum is a fan­tas­tic venue to visit for all cricket enthu­si­asts. You can see inter­est­ing cricket memen­tos such as the ball bowled by Wes Hall in the first-ever hat-trick by a West Indian, a bat auto­graphed by the first West Indies team to tour Eng­land after the Region gained test sta­tus in 1928 and a blazer worn by Eng­land player, Trevor Bai­ley, in the West indies tour of ¹⁹⁵³⁄₁₉₅₄.

The Museum is divided into four gal­leries and rooms:

The Por­trait Gallery- This is the first room you enter in the museum, and it is here that you por­traits of all the cricket leg­ends of Bar­ba­dos, along with a brief bio and their play­ing stats.

The Her­itage Room- This fas­ci­nat­ing room can trans­port you back into time with its exhibits, some of them dat­ing as far back as 1895. You can also see their valu­able mem­o­ra­bilia col­lec­tion, includ­ing auto­graphed bats, score­cards, sou­venir mag­a­zines, pho­tos and press clip­pings. You will also learn here the early mas­ters of Bar­ba­dos cricket includ­ing Horace Deighton and George Bur­ton who intro­duced the game into the school curriculum.

Icons Room- Here you will see high­lighted nine play­ers spe­cially selected by Leg­ends as icons because of their indeli­ble con­tri­bu­tion to cricket not only in the Caribbean, but world-wide. These Bar­ba­dian icons are Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Ever­ton Weekes, Sir Clyde Wal­cott (deceased), Rev. Wes Hall, Sey­mour Nurse, Char­lie Grif­fith, Gor­don Greenidge, Desmond Haynes and Joel Gar­ner. This room has inter­est­ing fea­tures, includ­ing dis­plays and mem­o­ra­bilia about these icons.

As an added bonus, you will also learn more about three cricket enter­tain­ment icons: The late King Dyall– known for his colour­ful per­son­al­ity and attire, and his sup­port of the Eng­land team despite being Bar­ba­dian; Gravy– the comedic fig­ure from Antigua who enter­tained the crowd with his out­ra­geous cos­tumes and danc­ing; and Mac Fin­gall– Well-known Bar­ba­dian enter­tainer and emcee, Mac Fin­gall who livens up Kens­ing­ton Oval at cricket matches with his band of merry revellers.

The Press Gallery- As its name sug­gests, this is a gallery of news­pa­pers clips dat­ing as far back as 1900. These clip­pings all high­light how cricket was cap­tured in the media dur­ing the years. Four Bar­ba­dian jour­nal­ists and com­men­ta­tors; Tony Cozier, Donna Sym­monds, Cap­tain Peter Short and Mitchie Hewitt€“ are also highlighted.

As you tour through this museum you will also encounter sev­eral vir­tual fields€™ which cap­ture the spirit of a par­tic­u­lar iconic moment. An exam­ple of this is the Sabina Park exhibit which cap­tures the first Test match against Aus­tralia in 1984 when wicket-keeper, Jeff Dujon, took a catch to dis­miss Steve Smith off the bowl­ing of Joel “€œBig Bird”€ Garner.

There is also a cricket shop, where you can get West Indies cricket apparel and sou­venirs. Among other inter­est­ing items, you can find books, dvds and even paint­ings. You can also relax for some lunch at the Leg­ends Pavil­ion Bar & Restaurant.

Tel: (246) 227‑2651

Open­ing hours for the museum are Mon­days to Fri­days 9:30 a.m to 5:00 p.m and on Sat­ur­days from 9:30 a.m to 3:00 p.m.

RELATED ARTI­CLES
Famous Bar­ba­dian Cricketers

Cricket In Bar­ba­dos
Sports in Bar­ba­dos
Muse­ums & Her­itage Sites
Things To Do In Bar­ba­dos
About Bar­ba­dos
Cur­rent Edi­tion of Caribbean Dreams Magazine