![Picture](/uploads/1/8/5/0/18504928/822594020.jpg)
Valentino Singh’s second biography of Austin Jack Warner was written to commemorate a historic moment in the annals of the tiny twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The qualification of our football team, fondly known as the Soca Warriors to the World Cup 2006 warrants a definite place in our history. It is also inextricably linked to the fortunes of the one man who more than any other personality in the history of the game in this country facilitated what some believe to be the Republic’s finest hour. It united the nation and ignited a spontaneous outpouring of national pride and achievement in all Trindadians and Tobagonians at home and in the diaspora. To rise to such heights in the beautiful game was a dream now fully realized.
Zero to Hero comes eight years after Upward Through The Night (1998) a biography written by the same author, and which detailed the vicissitudes of Austin Jack Warner, one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most accomplished sons. This book centres on the now historic circumstances that led to fame and unfulfilled glory for the Strike Squad, the team that campaigned for World Cup 1990. This recent offering, Zero to Hero presents a similar approach to a happier tale of journey and quest strung together in a socio-historical narrative. Singh has repackaged and reconfigured the material from the earlier work using it for a substantial part of the content of this book.
In fact, Zero to Hero is a metaphor for the life and achievements of Austin Jack Warner, who came out of a stereotypical background, possessing the all too familiar qualifications of being poor, black and countrified but rising to conquer his island, the region and the world. It is no wonder that Warner describes his country’s place in the finals of the football’s most stellar occasion as ‘happier than my wedding day’. There are those obvious similarities between man
and country respectively in diminutive size and stature but with the ability to defy all the odds. Who expects a Warner to interact with world figures at the most significant levels of sport, business and politics? Who expects one of the tiniest nations to qualify for football supremacy? The team, like the man triumphed over insurmountable circumstances. In the tradition of the classic quest there are villains and godfathers; obstacle courses and elevators throughout in the many years that led up to this victory and moment in time.
Zero to Hero comes eight years after Upward Through The Night (1998) a biography written by the same author, and which detailed the vicissitudes of Austin Jack Warner, one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most accomplished sons. This book centres on the now historic circumstances that led to fame and unfulfilled glory for the Strike Squad, the team that campaigned for World Cup 1990. This recent offering, Zero to Hero presents a similar approach to a happier tale of journey and quest strung together in a socio-historical narrative. Singh has repackaged and reconfigured the material from the earlier work using it for a substantial part of the content of this book.
In fact, Zero to Hero is a metaphor for the life and achievements of Austin Jack Warner, who came out of a stereotypical background, possessing the all too familiar qualifications of being poor, black and countrified but rising to conquer his island, the region and the world. It is no wonder that Warner describes his country’s place in the finals of the football’s most stellar occasion as ‘happier than my wedding day’. There are those obvious similarities between man
and country respectively in diminutive size and stature but with the ability to defy all the odds. Who expects a Warner to interact with world figures at the most significant levels of sport, business and politics? Who expects one of the tiniest nations to qualify for football supremacy? The team, like the man triumphed over insurmountable circumstances. In the tradition of the classic quest there are villains and godfathers; obstacle courses and elevators throughout in the many years that led up to this victory and moment in time.