NALIS receives copies of Nasser Khan’s Sixty-One Test Matches Played at the Queen’s Park Oval 1930-2020

THE National Library and Information Systems Authority (NALIS) recently received copies of the recently published book Sixty One Test Matches Played at the Queen’s Park Oval 1930-2020.

The author of the book is the experienced Nasser Khan. The book will also be donated to the National Archives, the University of the West Indies and the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

A media release said the book’s largely pictorial 205 pages (a flip book sample can be viewed at https://online.fliphtml5.com/xqopr/cjzt/) shows all the scorecards and statistics from all 61 Test matches, along with corresponding team and action photos for each game. Bonus pages also show some 20 pages of Queen’s Park Cricket Club’s (QPCC) history and 30 pages of the club’s championship teams over the years from 1934 to its star-studded team of 2019.

The book, Khan’s 21st publication (aptly in 2021) is foreworded by former West Indies wicket-keeper and vice-captain, and former TT Cricket Board and QPCC president Deryck Murray who penned about his boyhood dream to play a Test match on the "hallowed turf of this most idyllic venue." Murray’s dream eventually evolved into a distinguished cricket career.

"Ours is an enduring journey which deserves to be widely heralded and this publication is a timely intervention," Murray said. "The tales told by the pictures and scorecards will bring pleasure to and no doubt invoke pleasant memories for many of us, especially in these challenging covid19 times.”

In the book’s introduction, Khan wrote, "The purpose of compiling this commemorative book is to preserve the memories of the 61 Test matches that have been played at the Queen's Park Oval over the period of 90 years, from 1930-2020…the Queen's Park Oval is one of the most picturesque and famous cricketing grounds in the world currently ranked 11th out of 121 in the 'most Test matches played at' category since the first Test match was played in March 1877 at Melbourne, Australia, between Australia and England. It is number-one in this category in the West Indies.”

Khan said the idea of the book struck him last October when he was doing research on national cricketer and QPCC member Marcus Minshall, a multi-talented athlete, proficient in over ten sports, and older brother of masman Peter Minshall, who died at age 39 in 1970.

“While I was going through the Oval’s archives looking for Marcus’s photos, the idea came to me to compile a book on Test matches played at the Queen's Park Oval.”

Copies of the book can be purchased by calling the author at 387-2731 or at any of the six Health Net Caribbean clinics. They cost $200. The book was printed by Eniath’s Printery.

Khan’s 22nd project is already under way. The cricket publication will include forewords by former West Indies cricketers Clive Lloyd and Daren Ganga, and Government ministers.

Copies will be distributed to schools and libraries under a sponsored agreement with corporate entities such as First Citizens, Blue Waters, Health Net Caribbean Ltd and Eniath’s Printery. Khan is also completing his compilation of the sporting exploits of Marcus Minshall.