 Welcome back to the Sports Mac soon. Sporting icons, whether local, regional or international, are often awarded for their contributions to various disciplines. In the Caribbean, many universities and other educational institutions take part in showing their appreciation for sporting grades by honoring them with degrees and other awards. Many of the Caribbean's cricketing grades, such as Desmond Haynes and Shiv Narayan Chandapol, have been honored by universities over the years. The latest honoree from the cricketing realm has been acknowledged for his exploits in the commentary box. That man is Joseph Reds Pereira. The University of Guyana conferred an honorary doctorate on the 84-year-old on November 16 for his 60-year contribution to the media landscape. The ceremony was held in Burbese, where he was also inducted into the Burbese Cricket Board's wall of fame. Reds joins us via Zoom. Good afternoon, Reds, and congratulations. What an achievement. Well, it was a bit of a surprise. You know, I woke up one month ago on Wednesday morning and there was the email and it took me a little while to realize that the offer of a doctorate was coming from the university. Well, I simply replied accepting it. You don't dilly-dally about that, but it was a bit of a surprise because one doesn't do a life work of anything, in my case sport, expecting awards. You work towards getting success, that you make an impact on the lives of people, on the lives of the public, and that you have enjoyed basically what you have set out to achieve. In a real sense, whatever you might have achieved is because of the graciousness of other people who have given you the opportunity. Reds, you know, I introduced you just now and I said 60-year media contribution. I'm getting ready to hit 10 years. You've done 60. Looking back now, what has been your greatest achievement when you think back about just getting started, you know, brand new in the business, and now you're being awarded with a doctorate? Well, I think the first hurdle was to get over-stammering. I had a major handicap and it was like wanting to be a racing driver having bad eyes. And then another major hurdle was me getting sick in Australia with a stroke. But I would think that the opportunity that the Caribbean stations gave me, the late Linda de la Pena in particular, in 1973, when he exposed me to the Australian Test Series, work at the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, and I would think that those are some of the important, important days. The challenge of the OECS sports test was a major hurdle. It's different from broadcasting. Broadcasting, the teams that pick you do your homework and, you know, it's a very straightforward paint the picture, but for the OECS, I had to raise all the money. And luckily, my connection with cricket. It is a fraternity, it's a union, it's a brotherhood. I was able to raise the money for the events, which was very necessary to find the funding because the governments couldn't carry the cost of the sports test, although they wanted the sports test to function. Yeah, and Reds, now that you've done all that work, gained all that experience and knowledge, do you plan to give back to younger people who have aspirations one day to become a commentator, just like you? Well I just finished a workshop in Diana, and the theme of the workshop was taking it to another level. And for the first time, I had people from the Caribbean sending their contributions in terms of their notes and their papers, what they liked to hear from the commentator, which was a discussion point, Roland Butcher, Michael Finley, Prof Edwards, Alex Jordan, Colin Murray, and that's just a few. And we had a session with a match referee, Rian King, who did a brilliant job, brilliant job, interacting with the people who were taking part about the role of the match referee and how they handled the situations. We had a voice trainer from the Guineathe at the Gell talking about breathing exercises and controlling voice and projecting voice and lowering your level or lifting your level. It was a very interesting, the first time I introduced that, and you don't see a question, yes, I've just finished a two-day workshop at the GCC where we had about 25 people. And I was very satisfied and here's what we know, that more radio stations in Guiana, more TV stations, I can't re-crick it because after you do all that training, you really want an opportunity for people now to try and get an opportunity to produce what they have learned from the workshop about painting the picture. And, you know, radio is going out and you have a lot of streaming coming in and the adjustments have got to be made, language has got to change. So all that embodied the actual workshop. Yeah, and Reds, are you pleased with the current state of commentary that you've been listening to? Well, I have to accept that when you come to CPL, anything goes, I don't take it too seriously. But I believe that CPL has got its own language, it's a party and I think the commentators are involved in the spirit of the CPL. But I believe that quite a few people, former players, are being thrown in maybe too early and maybe need to have a little bit of training, a little bit of working with some of the experienced commentators so that when they get an opportunity, they have worked on a number of things which they need to know. I think people are being thrown in at the deep end. People are being thrown in at the deep end. And I think the authorities, maybe the rights owners, the West Indies board themselves could operate a training program, a small training program. It doesn't have to be long, it could be maybe a two-day workshop. And that is my response to your question. Yeah, Reds, when I saw last week that you were doing the commentary workshop in Guyana, I was fascinated by that because, well, you make some excellent points. One of them is that we just don't have as much radio commentary as we did many years ago. So a young man like myself, I grew up listening cricket. I listened more cricket than I watched cricket. And so I fell in love with radio commentators, Fazir Mohamed, Andrew Mason, Simon Crosskill, Reds Pereira, Donna Simmons was a commentator at the time. And those voices resonated at the time. I do want to get an understanding though from the workshop if you had commentators who were more interested in radio or are you seeing the complete shift now where those coming in are eyeing television commentary? I think people are realizing that there is less radio and they've got to make the adjustment. And when you're doing streaming, when you're doing television, it's not the obvious. You have to say that Pereira comes in and bows to whoever it is, and they're on the front foot. Everybody's seeing that. So the language has got to be adjusted. The style has got to be adjusted. You have to look at why a person is pulling so many no-balls, not saying that's a no-ball. Everybody's seeing that. And less cliches. I mean, I gave an example of one person who every other over will say, land of water, blackwood is batting, land of water, or maybe the over comes to an end and you keep saying on the over comes to an end and you can simply change that around very easily. You can say that Hussain about the last over of his paddle. The case may be. I think the adjustments is slow in fact coming. And in 30 seconds, Reds, is there still a place in your opinion for radar commentary in this region? Well, I'd like to believe so, but about a month ago, Barberus had a bit of a trial match before the 50 over started. And Barberus is very strong in radio. The weekend club cricket is carried on, I think. But to my surprise, that was streamed. As far as I know, there was no radio and that's the sign of the times. I think we have to accept, we have to accept that maybe the next summer test match to Jamaica, there will be radio along with the television commentary. But I think we must accept that the great days of radio and people with their transistors may be coming to an end. All right, Reds. Well, you know, we always enjoy chatting with you here on the Sports Mac. So congratulations again. And next time we talk, I'll have to address you differently. Congrats on your award. Well, you can call me Dr. James. Yeah, next time. I'm going to practice. I know your colleague would like that because he knows it's a great basketball player. We'll call that, but I'm just having a little bit of fun. Yeah, and I will definitely call you that next time. So thank you. Chat again really soon. Take care, Reds. Good afternoon. All right, Reds, Barbera Day, Dr. Reds. Let's take a break.