It was in New Amsterdam that he encountered his first “moving staircase” (an escalator). It was also there that he observed almost everybody using touchscreen mobile phones and felt “anxious to make some money to go buy a touchscreen phone and to understand what the internet is”.

And,eventually,it was where he reportedly found himself living next door to Romario Shepherd,the Guyana and West Indies white-ball specialist who introduced him to Guyana national head coach Esuan Crandon.

He trained with the team for a short time and attended a fast-bowling clinic run by Ambrose,who told him he had what it took to play international cricket. After making 6-13 on Division 1 debut,he took eight wickets in a trial game and earned himself a first call-up,making his first-class debut in the regional four-day competition and then a contract in the Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament.

This all happened last year. At the end of 2023,he was named in the West Indies A squad that toured South Africa and claimed 12 wickets in two games against South Africa A.

Earlier this month,he was handed his cap and not long after that took Smith’s outside edge and then his wicket. By the end of Australia’s first innings,he was 5-94. “Getting Steve Smith,I’ll remember this for the rest of my life,” an elated Joseph said in a press conference on Wednesday. “I’ll take a picture with him and post it in my house.”

Smith might be his “favourite player”,but the close-to-perfect maiden ball that dismissed him was for Joseph’s family.

“I always have a ball in my hand,and I sleep with a ball next to me in bed,” he told Cricbuzz. “Every time I look at this ball I’m holding,I think that it’s for Amari and Amali and Trishana - the three people that I care about. Every time I get on to the field,I might be nervous. But when I see the ball and I am reminded of them,I know what I’m doing.”

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