African Sports Monthly January 2013 Issue | Page 39

“I love cricket because it is what I started doing with
my father when I was young. He tied me up in front of the
TV to watch it. Chris Gayle, Brian Lara, and all those guys
like Courtney Walsh, I watched them play each and every
time. That’s my love you know, I even love it over track and
field.”
Blake’s humbleness shows when he says that he is
really good in athletics as if he wouldn’t know he is one of
the world’s most famous athletes.
“Athletics gave me the start in life, God showed me
this way: ‘Look Yohan, athletics is going to take you really
far.’ Although I was really good in cricket, athletics has
taken over my life since I was like 16 so I started pretty
late, but I’m really good,” he said.
Blake does not think the popularity of athletics has
caused the downfall of cricket in Jamaica, although cricket
started losing its glory at the same time when Jamaica
started to become a major power in athletics globally.
Yohan admits when asked about the decline of
cricket in Jamaica saying: “No, I think the downfall of
cricket started after the West Indies won the tour against
England and the ICC Champions Trophy. After that we lost
a lot of good players, due to the fact that most of them
were getting injured and a lot of people started to lose hope in the West Indies. Courtney Walsh,
Curtly Ambrose, Brian Lara and all the other guys retired, from there we lost the venom, we lost
everything.”

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