Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Susan Bradley - Norman Grindley /Deputy Chief Photographer

ALTHOUGH THERE are several cricket lovers in Susan Bradley's family, she admits that she is not a fan of the game. However, when her aunt handed her a box containing negatives of the West Indies cricket team's 1950 tour of England, she was bowled over.

"She said, 'I know you're a photographer and I want you to have this'," Ms. Bradley related to The Sunday Gleaner. "When I opened it and saw what was inside, I said this is a one-of-a-kind item."

For 57 years, Ms. Bradley's aunt, Sybil Francis, kept the negatives once owned by her husband Sam in a small container at her St. Andrew home. On it are shots of the Caribbean team's historic victory over England at Lord's in the second of the four-Test series on June 29. It was the first time the West Indies won a Test match at cricket's hallowed headquarters.

The scenes of players - including match-winning spinners Alfred Valentine and Sonny Ramhadin - celebrating with Trinidadian calypsonian Lord Kitchener, are on the strip. It is, arguably, the most iconic photograph in post-World War II Caribbean history. It is a moment Ms. Bradley hopes to share with young Jamaicans who, like herself, know little of the Lord's victory and the significance it held for the Caribbean islands which were fighting for independence from Britain.

Developed negatives

"It should go into some sort of cricket museum. I think it would encourage more kids to learn more about cricket and play the game," she said. Ms. Bradley has developed the negatives and transferred them to compact disc for preservation.

Sam and Sybil Francis were passionate about cricket. Sam, an executive with the Shell oil company, and Sybil, a social worker, were living in London at the time the West Indies team arrived in Britain for its third tour of that country in 1950.

Sam, Ms. Bradley said, bought the negatives as a souvenir. When he died 20 years ago, Sybil guarded his prized possession in a cupboard at their Barbican home, until recently when she handed it over to their niece. Sybil Francis, who worked for many years at the University of the West Indies' Mona campus, is now 93 years old. Her niece said she retains her love for cricket and never misses a match in the ongoing Cricket World Cup.

Editor's note: Last week's Sunday Gleaner carried the film strip in full.