Sir Richie Richardson played a memorable knock last Tuesday night (November 26), taking his audience on the journey of his extraordinary life. From humble beginnings in the community at Five Islands in rural Antigua to the choice of “cricket over football” to “the duck” in his first Test match onto being surprisingly handed the captaincy of West Indies, his battle with fatigue syndrome, and into retirement as manager and match referee – he spoke candidly on the topic of cricket.
He also let the public in on his personal life on being raised by his big sister, his love and adoration of family and his undying dedication and commitment to the upliftment of his beloved homeland of Antigua and Barbuda. All this was delivered with great aplomb as he spoke at the launch of his new book “Richie Richardson” at an intimate ceremony at the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies.
“It is because of my love of cricket that I remained in cricket, and I will always do all I can to help cricket in any way,” Sir Richie said. “From the time I was a little uzunluk growing up in Five Islands, I had the dream of playing for the West Indies, and I was able to fulfill that dream.
“I have enjoyed the journey, and after retirement, I was delighted to contribute even more to the game when was the West Indies team manager, and now as a match referee of the ICC (International Cricket Council). This has given me great joy. I see myself as a West Indian, a proud West Indian … and I want to urge the people of the region to love the game of cricket and continue to fly the flag for the team, which has represented us so proudly for close to 100 years.”
Those words of wisdom were spoken to a captive audience, which included cricket icons, Sir Wes Hall and Sir Gordon Greenidge. Also in attendance were former West Indies cricketers, Floyd Reifer and Pedro Collins, as well as international umpire Gregory Brathwaite.
This publication promises to be a captivating page-turner and is co-authored by Professor Densil A. Williams and it forms part of the Caribbean Biography Series, published by the University of the West Indies Press.
The event was hosted by Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UWI Cave Hill, Professor Clive Landis, while Vice Chancellor of UWI, Sir Hilary Beckles delivered a detailed outline of the book, much to the delight of the audience.
Sir Richie is ranked among the greatest West Indies cricketers of all time. He scored 5 949 runs in 86 Test matches at an average of 44.4 with 16 hundreds. He was also captain when the West Indies reached the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup (50 overs) semi-final in 1996, and he was manager when the team won the ICC Men’s Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in 2012.
His role as an ICC match referee has also been one of mentorship and he has officiated in 52 Tests, 99 One-day Internationals and 104 T20Is. (Sportsmax)
**Philip Spooner is the former Media Manager of the West Indies Men’s cricket team. He worked with Sir Richie between 2011 and 2015 – during which time the team won the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2012**