SPORTSMAN PROFILE

Former national junior captain Shaquille Williams shares his experiences and challenges faced growing in the cricket profession from the tender age of eight to present, he has made a name for himself locally and internationally through his abilities both on the field and off.
He plays the position of an all-rounder, right handed batsman and off spin bowler. Locally Williams plays for the Malteenoes Sports Club in Georgetown.

‘Produce or perish’ said 25-year-old cricketer Shaquille Williams, who has been producing and displaying his capabilities since the age of eight in sports and academics. Born on the 20th March, 1994 a time before technology enveloped most of our youths’ minds. Mr Williams grew up in central Georgetown, Norton street making his environment his playground, He strongly believes that being able to bond with nature would have ‘added and helped his development in sports’ or If he was not playing cricket, it was football. basketball and genuine outdoor fun with his friends. Williams shared while growing up, Norton street was in a deplorable state thus resulting in reduction of traffic on the street enabling him and his friends to play games and sports. It was on that very street where he began to develop the love for the sport.

With Norton street being his playground and the world at large holding his inspirations, Mr Williams choose to look up to Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul among others emulating their bowling and batting skills. His love and passion for the sport and the happiness it brought him grew more and more every day.

Given his abilities and how he grew up, the cricketer said he was always a self-motivated and initiative independent individual and with the presence of a good support system he has been able to juggle his education life and his sports life until academics and sports training began to clash as to which should come first.

The former St Joseph student said there were times when he ‘made a lot of mistakes, and I learned from the mistakes and kept moving forward.’ He said it was only a phase in life he passed through.
For instance, following one of Mr Williams’ darkest and deep downfall in his cricketing career was the highlight of it, his biggest accomplishment.  This was grabbing the spotlight at a local tournament and showing his potential, acquiring himself the most valuable player award of the tournament.
Mr Williams stated his downfall was caused by him being banned by his club from playing cricket due to indiscipline.

Mr Williams implied that cricket was and will always be a part of his life. To no surprise he chooses to keep it in his life no matter the struggles to balance it with his studies, Given Guyana’s wide pool of talented youths there is not a proper system catering for the youths to carry on with their career in sports and studies at the same time. For example, when he attended the University of Guyana he received a letter from the Guyana cricket Board insisting his presence at games but the university would not acknowledge this letter as a reason to be excused from the institution or ever resit exams if missed.
Williams stressed that provisions needs to be made  to assist players with the clashes of studies and games so that they could be able to get back tutoring and exams that would be missed.

‘It’s not a rare occurrence’’, he said, ‘it’s very common yet there is no solution.’

Five years ago, he got an opportunity where he could do both and took that chance, He attended University of the West Indies where he was a student athlete. Played for the UWI blackbirds and pursued a degree in banking and finance.
This gave him great exposure to the sport at an international level, which helped him learn new techniques of playing cricket. Playing at the University of the West Indies may have placed him on the radar of the West Indies cricket team scouts. While attending the University, Williams participated in BCA (Barbados Cricket Association) tournaments and matches against other Universities on the island.

Beyond cricket is a budding entrepreneur who loves to see youth and societal development and wants to be able to contribute and be a ‘builder of society’ Regardless of his passion and love for cricket he has to secure his future and daily income since the age of thirty three (33) usually marks the end of any sportsman reign. He is currently in the process of building his foundation but is focused on furthering his studies.
Mr Williams also shared many cricketers don’t think about their future beyond the sport, which is something he pays lots of attention to and he is preparing in advance by further pursuing his studies so he can be marketable for the life after cricket.

Since his return from Barbados he is putting his efforts into joining the Guyana Senior Team but his work commitments hinder him from putting out one hundred percent in training. Mr Williams currently works at the Public Procurement Commission, a job that requires him to work from nine to five leaving him with insufficient time for training.

Williams stated one major challenge he faced was management of time, it was the greatest test of all. Managing school and training was no easy task.
The cricket system in Guyana when it comes to catering to sportsmen and women who are studying needs to be looked into so that players can perform in both academics and in sports. 

With concerns to the upcoming talented youths in sports, Shaquille advises , to stay focused, prepare to work hard, take time and fall in love with the process of the sport rather than being obsessed about the product, to never allow someone else have the power to control your destiny , be wise and you make the decision pertaining to the life you want.

Williams stated the standard of cricket in Guyana needs to be improved if we are to produce great players, more effort needs to be focused on development of players, training facilities, coaching and all aspects that needs to be improved so that the standard of cricket in Guyana can reach an acceptable level.