By Neto Baptiste
Two of Antigua and Barbuda’s cricket legends who formed part of the successful 1975 West Indies World Cup winning squad, have given a recent awards jointly organized by the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and Cricket West Indies (CWI), high marks despite scepticism the joint effort could diminish the significance of the team’s achievement.
Former batsman Sir Viv Richards and former fast bowler, Sir Andy Roberts, both played integral roles in the success of the team with Sir Andy third in the bowling rankings with eight wickets.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Sir Andy who had earlier said he would have preferred a stand-alone event to honour the team, did not relinquish his point but said the event was well-received.
“The function was good but what I am saying is that you would get more details coming out of the function if you had only the players because there were lots of other distractions from that. It went well, I must say, and now I am sitting besides the president [Dr Kishore Shallow] and the noise in the background is Alvin Kallicharran so everything came off well and they agreed they are going to consult with us more on the standard, on the level of the cricket,” he said.
The Antiguan and former Combined Islands player whose unbeaten 64-run tenth-wicket stand with Dyreck Murray against Pakistan helped to put West Indies in the 1975 final, said he knew they would have brought it home for the regional squad.
“The thing that gave me hope is that there were 14 overs to go so about 60-something or 70-something balls to go and that gave me confidence because I knew that as long as I didn’t get out that Dyreck was the rock. He was even calmer than I was, although I tried to keep him going but I said I wasn’t going to get out,” Sir Andy said.
Sir Viv, who said it was a delight catching up with his former teammates, zoomed in on what he said was an on-point presentation by Prime Minister of Barbado, Mia Mottley.
“I listen to the keynote speeches and what I came away with is some serious confidence from someone I admire, a Caribbean person and the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, and she was just special as normal in terms of her insight and where she would like to see West Indies cricket at,” he said.
The gala was a joint event celebrating the achievement of current players while honouring the squad of the successful 1975 World Cup 50 years on from the achievement. The event took place at the prestigious Wyndham Grand in Barbados.
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