Sometimes words are our best emissaries. They enable us to summon and send out to the wicket a perspective on a warrior called back to the pearly pavilion. With them, we can capture a scripture that illuminates an eternal truth such as this: We are because he was!

Today we hold aloft a pantheon of cherished ideals and can make real our innermost imaginings. This warrior erupted from the most oppressed of us and led a Joshua journey to the land of possibilities for those with a passionate desire for recognition and justice.

The transition of The Right Excellent Sir Garfield St. Aubrun Sobers, therefore, represents much more than a monumental moment in the theory and practice of cricket culture and its stage performance. The facts that speak to a powerful parade of artistic genius and theatrical excellence are themselves insufficient to illuminate an icon of hitherto unknown dimensions. Everywhere within the statistics reflecting almost unimaginable performance can be seen a scenario in which enlightenment rises from the darkest dungeons of the British Empire.