The following is a comment from the Jamaica Observer website after news broke on Saturday of the death of former West Indies and Jamaica cricketer Richard Austin.

‘Danny Germs’ was not been a non-entity to many who remember him as a Jamaican player.

I am so ashamed at how the Rebel players were ostracized by our society and left to fall into destitution, poverty and drugs. It is a myth that we Jamaicans are a loving people. When we turn against someone it’s usually to the extreme and we carry that grudge for life. We turned our backs on Lawrence Rowe, Herbert Chang and ‘Danny Germs’. Rowe was able to escape to the US, no such luck for Danny and Herbert.

Yes, Danny and others took “blood money” to go play cricket but Colin Croft, Ezra Mosley, Franklyn Stephenson and Lawrence Rowe have all gone on to do well, I guess that is because none of them were in Jamaica.

I am in the Cross Roads area quite a few days per week while working and would buck up on Danny Germs begging, he was always respectful and most times I would buy him something to eat, patty, a bun, a drink.

Here was a fellow man who made a major mistake in life and it hounded him, with help from us, to an early grave. There was no second chance for him, no redemption, he was not strong enough to beat his drug habit and move on and we as a society just looked on and scorned him.

We need to really look at ourselves and see how we treat people. ‘Danny Germs’ wasn’t a thief or a murderer but we treated as if he had killed many without regret. We treated him worse than a mongrel dog begging in the street.

I am happy to have listened to ‘Danny Germs’ rambling about West Indies cricket, “these boys have no passion” he muttered once, and he was correct. He came along when there was no way to get into a team made up of Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Homes, Logie and Lloyd, today we would have easily walked into this lacklustre bunch.

Walk good ‘Danny Germs’. I know you up there batting with Sir Frank, Learie, Mass George and company.

DaleG

dalegonsalves@yahoo.com