This episode of Clearview Today is brought to you by Le Bleu Ultra Pure Water.
David, how many bottles of water do you think you drink a day? Well, actually, I only drink Flamin' Hot Mountain Dew, Strawberry Yoo-Hoo, and the occasional Pepto Bismol. Flamin' Hot Mountain Dew? Do they even make that anymore?
Fun fact, no. I have to make my own with McDonald's Sprite, and you guessed it, Texas Pete. I am genuinely horrified to hear that.
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That's right. Le Bleu delivers our water coolers right here to Clearview Church every single month like clockwork. And it's not just water. Le Bleu supplies the finest gourmet coffees, teas, and hot chocolates to accommodate every preference in your office. I'm talking Green Mountain, Starbucks, Krispy Kreme Donut Shop. So whether you're looking for the perfect brew for yourself or for your workplace, Le Bleu has got you covered. You can visit their website today at MyLeBleu, that's M-Y-L-E-B-L-E-U.com, and use promo code today, that's T-O-D-A-Y, for a 10% discount at checkout.
Every single purchase you make using that promo code helps us here at The Clearview Today Show and gets you one step closer to the purest, most refreshing water you've ever tasted. Thank you to Le Bleu for sponsoring this episode. Now let's start the show. Hey, what's going on listeners? My name is John.
And I'm Elli. And we just want to take a second and let you know about Dr. Shah's new book on the market right now called Can We Recover the Original Text of the New Testament? Boy, that is a long title. True, but it's a very simple message. The original text of the New Testament is not only attainable, but there are lots of different ways that scholars go about discovering it. There's a lot of people out there saying that the original text is lost forever, or that it's hopeless to actually try to find it, or that there's many texts of the New Testament. But alongside Dr. David Allen Black, Dr. Shah has actually compiled papers from some of the world's leading experts in textual criticism, including one written by himself on various methodologies for extracting the original text. And listen, if you're interested in textual criticism, this book is a great introduction to the field. You can pick up your copy on Amazon, or you can buy it from our church website.
That's ClearviewBC.org. We're going to leave a link in the description box so you can get your copy today. Love that. Elli, let's hop back in. Let's do it. You're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. And you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com.
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Absolutely nothing less than five stars for any reason imaginable. We're going to leave you guys a couple of links in the description so you can do just that. And we're here in the Clear View Today studio with Dr. Abbadan Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, along with extremely special guest. Do you want to do the introduction? I'd be glad to.
This would have a little bit more weight coming through. So seated here in the studio with us is Mr. Alvin Kalicharan. Just go ahead. There you go. Yeah, a little round of applause. Thank you for being here with us. He is a legend in the field of cricket. And on the cricket field.
And in the cricket field too. It's an honor to have you on the show today. Pleasure, though. Thank you so much for being here. Also with us is his pastor, Pastor Lawrence White, here with us. And Pastor White, thank you for being here as well. Good afternoon.
God bless you, Dr. Shah. That's right. You've been a good friend. And you've been in this studio before.
Yes, thank you. You've done some recording for us. And not singing, just some words. If you all, though, if you want to bust that into song during the show, I wouldn't blame you. I wouldn't stop you one bit. He will do it.
He will do it, yes. Absolutely. Well, it's really great to have you guys here.
You know, cricket is not a sport that's very big in the United States, but that's changing. We're starting to see it come in more and more and more. And I guess, Mr. Kalicharan, if you want to just kind of tell us about how you got your start, how you met Pastor Lawrence and Dr. Shah, and just kind of how all this came to be. Oh, well, you know, spirituality is a great thing. Amen. Amen. I, over a year ago, Pastor White came to see me in Margeville, that they are trying to promote the game of cricket.
And I came with a bunch of people, helpers, to assist us, to promote the game, showing them how to play the game and everything. Through that, Pastor introduced me to Dr. Shah. And again, I don't believe in spirituality, there's a coincidence. I was meant to meet these kind of people. Amen. Wow. Amen. Wow. I was meant to meet them. Wow.
And that's how come we're here today, too. Oh, go ahead. Yeah. I mean, my introduction happened on Facebook, actually, when our local sheriff, Sheriff Brehm, put some pictures out there from Kessler Temple, where Pastor White has been pastoring. And I noticed one individual in that group. I said, I think I know who that is. And I looked down and it was Alvin Carlicheron. I said, the only Alvin Carlicheron I know was the West Indies legend, cricket player. If someone's like, hey, I want you to meet this guy, his name's Babe Ruth. Yeah.
Unless we're talking about a different person. He's nicknamed after that guy. It's like, no, that's the guy. Were you like pinching yourself when you saw that picture? Yeah. When I saw that, I was like, oh, wow.
So I even commented on that picture. I said, you were the legend. As a matter of fact, Pastor came to me that day after. He said, there's a person in this area I would like you to meet. Dr. Debin Shaw. Wow. You know, and that was that particular Sunday.
You've got to meet that Dr. Shaw. And then I think he made contact with you the same day. Yes. He texted me and then we connected. And we had lunch and I said, do you really had Mr. Kalesharan at your church? And he said, yes. I said, wow.
That's incredible. So you grew up playing cricket. Of course, you grew up playing cricket as well.
But for someone who's listening... Let's just clarify that. Like, what is cricket? The way he grew up playing cricket is not the way I grew up. You played for school. You played for school.
It's basically the same. He played for a country. He played in England professionally. I played cricket, but it's not the same. We played, but it ain't the same. I played tee-ball once.
It's kind of like the game for you. We're going to bring the game back here. So everybody now would be playing cricket. That's right.
That's right. So for anybody who's listening who's not familiar with how cricket works, is there like a very, very brief, like TLDR version of how does cricket work? I wouldn't even venture to begin to explain if a legend is sitting here. Cricket in a nutshell. In fact, there is a bit of similarity to baseball. And cricket was invented in this country. When the British came, they brought cricket here. And then when the British left, the Americans said it was too dangerous because when the ball hits the surface, it can be dangerous, hitting injuries and everything.
Americans made it easier. Instead of the ball hitting the pitch, they threw it full. So that was the birth of baseball.
Oh, wow. Yeah. So if you look at the swings and everything with that, basically the same.
And the circumference of the ground and around is basically the same. It's only cricket. You've got to run straight.
In baseball, you've got to go around a bit. Okay. Wow. Okay. That's the key difference. That makes sense with the similarities. Yeah.
It's structurally the same game with a couple of key differences. So you were saying something at lunch because we had lunch right before we did this. You were saying sometimes games can go as long as five days.
To me, that's wild. If I go to see an American football game, it's four 15-minute quarters. It should be an hour.
Lasts about four or five hours. I'm getting a little bit anxious. I was just about to say, you Americans don't have patience. No, not at all. And you'd be right.
We certainly do not. Yeah. Four or five hours filling an event. I'm like, okay, we're done. But we've got a shorter version of the game, too. You've got 50 overs and a fourth. Now more excitement is 20 overs. Have you seen now the World Cup is going on?
America won two games. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
They are qualified in the top eight. Wow. Incredible. Yeah. I know that.
That's pretty amazing. Which is happening now. Yeah. The present World Cup. It's really interesting because I'm kind of revealing my weakness. Sports is a huge weakness for me. I love sports, but I'm very bad at keeping up with them.
So then you come to something like this, but then you also have a great story with your life revolving around the game with the cricket. Your life story that you were telling us about at lunch. Yes.
We need plenty of time. Oh, sure. I'll be brief.
Sure. But I was very fortunate or unfortunate at times because I grew up in a different environment growing up in Guyana. Not as fortunate as many people playing in the streets, not knowing what destiny is, not knowing where the future is, not knowing where the next meal coming from, not knowing if you're going to go to school tomorrow. So I grew up under those sorts of circumstances. But I call it faith. As faith was having created that for me because I never believed this belief that faith one day would give me this opportunity. As when you read the book of Hebrews, faith, faith took me here and created me from a lot of uncertain circumstances. It took me there. At 14, I couldn't go to school. And because of faith and destiny, God took me to that place to sit there one day.
And this opposition team was one shot. And that created everything for me. And the deputy principal of that school asked me to come the Monday morning and I was granted a scholarship to finish high school.
That's amazing. What was running through your mind when the principal called you to meet with him? Excitement and thought, there's a future for me. There's a future, there's an opening for me now. And that was all we were looking for. Any opening.
Any opening that can happen. And my belief, my belief, all of believing God, that one day he will rescue me. He will rescue me. And rescuing in the sense, he didn't rescue me to just, oh, you'll come back again. He sent me to a different world.
The world of freedom to play the game to the highest level for 30 years. I couldn't ask for a better career. And in terms of two things, financially, worldwide name, famous, all that he did to me. He did all of that to me. And that's why he always said, I've got a plan for you. And that was the plan he had for me. That's the first one. The first plan.
The second plan coming up. Right. Right. Right. Which we'll talk about. Right. Which we'll talk about.
The greater things in your life and through your life. But in those years, you not only played for the West Indies team, but you went and played professionally in England and played for is it? Warwickson. Yeah. Warwickson, 22 years. 22 years. 22 years.
22 years. And that was quite an experience. Experience, yes. Yes. And you played other parts of the world in South Africa as well?
South Africa, Australia, anywhere there's cricket. Yeah. and somebody who's come. When you look at how my life started, it started from the days of migration when the British took my grandparents away from India. Right.
Ended up in Guyana. Right. That's right. You know, so I've been traveling since. 150-year travel of your time, yeah. You know, we wanted to, just to give a little peek behind the screen, we were going to air this episode on the 7th, on June 7th, because that was the anniversary of the 1975 World Cricket Cup, which you were on the winning team for the West Indies.
First World Cup, yeah. But due to travel and things, we couldn't make it happen, but we wanted to give you the chance to talk about it, because it really is an incredible story, and there's incredible things coming to our community through it. That's right, that's right. Well, in terms of that, for the World Cup, and shall I talk about how I want to bring cricket to Henderson? Yes, please.
Yes, please. That's why we're here. That's why we're here. Because of that, and through Pastor White and Dr. Shaw, I want to help cricket here now, to introduce the game.
And the reason why I want to introduce the game here, you know, when we go, where do you find sportsmen? Most times in the world, we find them in simple background, on the privileged areas, nothing to do. So there's only two things can happen.
Getting success, or getting into more trouble. Right. True. Wow. That's a great point.
One out of the, we can get two. Right. Less trouble. Yeah. Yes. So that's, and I'm a living example. Wow.
How that can happen. Amen. Yeah.
So if you can do that, I'll be, well, at the same time, it's not me doing that. Right. It is God's will. That's right. Thy will be done. That's right. Amen. That's right. Amen.
Like Henderson. That's right. And we, you know, I've been in this community for 25 some years. Pastor White, you've been here, how many years now, coming up? Four years.
Four years. And prior to that, you were in, you knew about this area, correct? I did. Yes. And so in a sense, you were just kind of coming back to Henderson. I used to drive through here. That's right.
Tuesday night for three years, going to Maryland. That's right. Wow. And so you know our area, it definitely needs some upliftment, young people need a new outlet. Of course, we have other sports as well, but cricket has a certain appeal that is very unique. Unique is very unique.
Very unique. And it's getting, it's being, not promoted, it's being more, spreading more now across in America. Amen. That's amazing. Spreading more across in America, so. Do you wanna, maybe do you wanna speak to this kind of vision that you and Mr. Colley Tyran are sharing together, like this idea or this conviction, I guess, that God has given you to spread this game here in our community? Indeed, Alvin Kilcheran's story and his book, Color Blind, he graphically and clearly lays out how sports can be a catalyst of bringing people together. That's right.
That's a great point. And now, his testimony and his tremendous commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, that the vehicle of cricket can help to win souls and introduce people to the body of Christ and to the lordship of our blessed savior, and we are just on fire, and he's on fire as a 75-year-old junior senior citizen. 75, I would not have guessed it. I would have said 43, 43, 44, 42. I like that designation, 42. That designation of junior senior citizen, I like that.
Yeah, I'm not a senior citizen yet, I'm still in the junior league. I'm in training. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, and definitely, our community can use the enthusiasm, the passion, and as Pastor Weitz said, to bring people to Christ is at the heart behind this whole endeavor that we're in.
Behind this whole endeavor. That's why, as pastors, we're excited about this. That's right.
Yeah? Yes, well, I'm excited because, as I said, in some terms, you once said it, my age, you give me the strength. Yeah, that's true. You don't overlook my age. That's true. My age, you have got to design that strength for me.
That's right. You find it, said you will find the strength for me. Give me the courage, every day asking for four things. Give me wisdom, give me patience, give me strength, give me purity. I say, now I'm working with kids, I'm coaching kids now in this part of the world, in Raleigh. Give me the patience with them. You bless me so much for this successful career. I want now to produce these plays one by one.
Help me to help them with the Lord. Great, that's a great. Yeah, and I want to do that in my country, to Guyana. That's right. Which will talk about something that Dr. Shaw, you can talk about. That's right, that's right.
Coming up in October. But this is what I'm asking God every day for. Right. Give me that. I think something that you said earlier, I don't know if we said it on mic or if we said it off mic, but that kind of stuck with me.
And I think it's something that young people these days really need to hear is that, you know, you have to wake up hungry every day. Yeah. I think you said your cricket career taught you that. Yeah. And do you want to kind of just speak to that? Yeah.
I said judging from my background again, where I came from, you look for opportunities. And when that special opportunity comes your way, you can't afford to take a backseat. Right.
That's right. If I take a backseat, somebody else comes in, take my place. That's the end of me. Back to where I came from. I don't want to go back there. You even said that that's reflected in the game of cricket itself.
Because I didn't know this. If you're out in cricket, you're out of the game. It's not like you, all right, I'll try again in the next couple innings. Yeah. So I looked at the career like that.
I looked in front every day. I couldn't afford to wake up, say I'm tired today. I don't feel like it.
No. Yesterday finished. That game is finished.
Next game today, I've got to do the same work again. That's right. Same job.
And number two, I believe one thing. When you set a standard, there's only one way. Down.
You took yourself up there. And you have to maintain that only. I call it maintenance. If I maintain that, I've got a good career. I've got a good career.
I've got success rate is good. And that meant I must be hungry. And I call it bank balance.
I call it bank balance, the reason for that. If I don't perform, I don't have a three-year contract again. Without coming to you, I'm playing for Warwickshire. If I don't succeed on a tour for West Indies, somebody else takes my place. And in those days, in those particular time, in the 70s into 80s, West Indies could have picked two teams of the same caliber. Wow.
Two teams of the same caliber. So you couldn't afford to have a day off. There's no day off. Wow. You have to look forward or look in front all the time in front of you. I feel like that mindset is so different from what we experience with a lot of people or a lot of people struggle with.
Especially the younger audience. Yeah. Just kind of like kick back and taking life as it comes and not really having that drive. But I feel like your story and that desire to wake up hungry every day and to perform and to establish that bank balance. And even if I were to say it happened in my time, could you imagine the people before me, what they went through to succeed? And they were my role models. They were my role models. Because I look up to them. I've never seen them.
But you may see a picture of them or something like that. And I want to be like that. I want to play like that. So you used to build your imaginary mental game to be like them. And the other thing is we didn't have computer. We were self-taught people, self-coached. Until I finished the career, we didn't have a coach.
Wow. We never had a cricket coach. All we had was mentors. And all we had was looking up to the older players in the dressing room who were our role models. So they were all coaches. So they instilled that toughness and that strength in you to do it.
And that's why I always say, if in our time we suffered, could you imagine what happened with them? Did you feel that shift when you became that role model, that older senior player in the locker room for the younger people on your team? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was the shift you were kind of cognizant of? Wow. That is shift. OK. Yeah.
So what you do is hand me down. Yeah. But now with the present game is computerization. The impact of television has created good things and bad things. The impact of television has created mediocrity into greatness.
Because it's been seen as household names. True. Very true. Right. In our time, there was not much television.
There were more radio and things like that. On the surface, it's a discussion of cricket. But there's a lot of leadership lessons to be learned here. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
Yes. I mean, that's what I'm hoping that his book, the book Pastor White mentioned, Color Blind, Struggles, Sacrifice, and Success of the Cricket Legend. I mean, that's the subtitle of this book. Struggles, Sacrifice, and Success. And we'll leave a link to the book in the description so people listening to the show can go and purchase it.
Yeah. And this book, I think, chronicles his journey. But it's more than just a list of accomplishments.
It's more than just, this is what I've done. This is what I've earned. Or in 2019, you were given a medal. What was that medal you want to share with us? Well, you know, it's a great finale to a career. Yeah.
To be, what you call it, to be acknowledged by the Queen of England, the British Empire Medal. Yes. That's a big deal. That's a huge deal. That's a big deal. But it still kept it simple.
Yeah. But the book is not about all those medals. It's more about giving some young person the inspiration he or she needs to come out of their struggles in life and their hardships. And it's not just pull yourself up. It's also about your faith.
And it's about faith in God, faith in Christ that helps you live that higher life, a life with purpose, a life not just to make money, but a life, money helps, but a life that helps you fulfill the destiny for which you were created. That's right. We were talking about this. Fulfill about that. Yeah. That's what I meant, yeah.
I keep asking that every day. That's how strong my conviction is. And the promise God has given is, if you seek me, you'll find me if you seek me with all your heart. That's right.
Yeah? So I hope our listeners and our viewers will be challenged by your faith to seek Christ, to go after him with everything you have. And that Mount Sinai that you're referring to is available to them as well, that closer walk with Christ. Now, Pastor Y, in October, you're taking a trip with Mr. Alvin to Guyana. And it's going to be a big book reveal. The book we just mentioned, Colorblind, is going to be distributed in Guyana.
That's correct. And Dr. Shah, we are very excited about that trip. October 4th through the 19th, we will be in the capital city of Guyana, Georgetown. And we'll be going to various churches and into the communities to distribute the book, Colorblind, as well as talk in some of the churches and we're actually going to the area where Alvin Kilocherian grew up and to one of the original cricket fields where he played. Amen. Wow. So we are excited ever since we've been invited to go there and take this great message and hope to the young people.
And we're trusting that my great friend, Dr. Albadan Shah, will be able to join us, if not in whole, in part for some of our trip to Guyana. I love it. I love it.
I'm checking my schedule. It'll be an honor. It'll be an honor. A lot of envious people back in India to know that I'll be traveling with Mr. Alvin Kilocherian. The legend himself.
The legend himself. And of course, my good friend, Pastor White, that'd be an honor to do that. We're hoping it'll be a success. We want it to be, and like anything else, any help we get, we're going to acknowledge it. Yes.
Yes, things like that. So I want to make it successful. Amen. I wanted it.
Because I said earlier on, we just spoke to you chaps about that. He's now blessing me with a second career. Right. I asked him for that.
Yeah, I asked him for that. Make me great again. Amen. In a different career. That's right.
That's right. Not quickly. This new career, which you are giving me good. Amen. Wow. That's amazing.
And there'll be a step in the God's plan. So great. Alvin Kilocherian, thank you so much for being here with us today.
Dr. Shah, Dr. White, man, what a wonderful episode. Encouraging to us, and I know it was encouraging to you at home as well. If you have any questions about what you heard about today, write in and let us know.
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