Gertrude Ann Browne-John has devoted more than 30 years of her life to sports at a national level and in the process has managed to create history by being the first female to be appointed a member of the West Indies Cricket Board committee.

Yet she believes that the national award she received for her loyal and devoted service in the area of sport was not just for her accomplishments in sport but for her entire family.

Browne-John, who received the Humming Bird Medal Silver on Independence Day at President’s House, St Ann’s, said getting the medal for her contribution to national sports - cricket and hockey - was a pleasant surprise but:

’I saw it as an award for my family because they were all involved. I have bigger sisters who were national (cricket) captains most of them have migrated now but it is just I am the person here now and I have received it but it is for them,’ she said.

Browne-John, who was born into cricket, not only played cricket, coached it and played several administrative roles in cricket but also contributed to national hockey up to 2007.

Her mother Bernice Browne- one of the pioneers of women cricket in Trinidad and Tobago- started the Merry Girls cricket club together with Browne-John’s father in which all of their eight daughters played.

’So she worked a lot to get women’s cricket to where it is now and the other members of the family worked as well which is why I said I saw it as something culminating out of all they had done,’ she said.

Browne-John who is also a full time customs officer, now in charge of the container office at Point Lisas, started her love affair with sports and cricket in 1970 while at secondary school- St Francois Girl’s College- and went on a year later to play with her family’s club Merry Girls.

By 1975 she made it onto the national women’s team alongside three of her other sisters who were on the team at the time.

Selected as captain of the national team in 1986, she held that position until 1990 when her service was broken but in 1994 she returned as the team leader and held the position until 1997.

Then in 1988 she was named captain of the West Indies team where she remained until 1997. During her captaincy she led the team to the World Cup tournaments in England in 1993 and in India in 1997.

In 1998 she became the first woman to participate in a junior cricket coaches course which she topped and that same year went on to the West Indies Board’s senior coaching course in St Vincent.

She is now a level two WICB coach and technical advisor to the Trinidad and Tobago Ladies cricket team.

Browne-John also had the opportunity to coach the West Indies ladies team from 2002 to 2006.

And while she was highly involved in cricket she also played a great game of hockey.

’I was also playing hockey at the same time; juggling the two national sports with great difficulty.’

’What happened was that I had a sister who started playing hockey and I was looking for something to do during the off period- from September to December -and I started practicing there and that is how I ended up playing hockey.

She played hockey until 2007 when she got a back injury that forced her to stop, she said.

Browne-John said a woman’s sporting life is usually very short mainly because when they have children or get married their husbands want them to stop playing or the children take all of their time.

She said when a woman is able to stay in sports for a very long time it is a great thing.

But time management and a supportive family, she said, are both necessary to achieving the longevity that she has in sport.

’Manage your time and ensure that you put everything in its correct compartment.

’If you are at work you make sure and give 100 per cent, if you are at cricket you give 100 per cent, hockey 100 and with family 100 per cent.’

’You know people hear you are a customs officer and you play cricket and hockey but they don’t realize that you have to go home and cook, and wash, and clean.

’But I must say that I have a very supportive family- my husband and daughter are very supportive.’

’I have travelled so much for sports if I did not have a supportive husband who would stay with our daughter while I travelled I would not have been able to do it,’ she said.