Selector Force has a Nike swoosh engraved on his gold tooth and he is spinning basses that never stop humming. Bourda is bathed in sunshine and two local boys are batting sweetly, but the real action is just outside. Carib, a local sponsor, is selling their beer cheap, and Selector Force is doing Dub Reggae. Reggae is actually not the sound of Guyana. That must be Soca-Chutney, a thumping variant of calypso, packed together with Hindi and English words and a whole load of rhythm. Selector Force is a bonafide Dub man and his favourite is Moses Anthony Davis, more popularly known as Beanie Man.

Dub Reggae artists sing about "life in the common form. Gunfights, police atrocities..." Parents don't often approve. It is perceived to be a destructive and rebellious force. Selector Force clarifies: "The folks in high places don't get it, man. We is not preachin killin, we is preachin reality." There's a song by Mad Corba whose chorus goes thus: Anytime you want war, anytime you want war.... "That's not tellin people to go out and do war. It means you got to protect yourself. If someone come to rob me, to kill me, to break my house, and I has a gun, I got to use it, right?"

Selector Force vibes with this music, "because I was born into it. My parents and my fore-parents, they listen to Reggae. Those days there was Marley, Peter Tosh, Yellowman...now I'm a DJ. It's the DJ's job to communicate the message of the music. You got to tell the people what it means, what it preaches, what it don't."

During matches, his scene gets quite crowed. In the afternoons, people "step out, hang out, have a few drinks. If West Indies are doin well, there's some dancin too." Today, the mood is in evidence, though not in full blast. There are some shaking hips and there is loud and noisy banter.

A bunch of youngsters instantly identify a local favourite and begin to sing: "Gaanja Man is smokin, he ain't choking..." Wonder what their parents would make of that.

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com India. His reports will appear here throughout the Test series.

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