Mali Richards hits Leeward record 319

ST JOHN’S: The son of former West Indies batsman Sir Vivian Richards established a new record yesterday for the highest individual score in the 90-year-old Leeward Islands Cricket Tournament at the Antigua Recreation Ground. Mali Richards, 19, scored 319 runs while playing for Antigua and Barbuda against the combined US and British Virgin Islands on the second day of the three-day match. The left-handed batsman’s effort surpassed the previous best of 318 by Alex Adams of Anguilla against the combined Virgin Islands in 1997. Richards gathered his runs from 420 balls in 498 minutes and it contained 22 fours and six sixes. “I’m really pleased,” he said at the end of his innings. “It is a lot of hard work being rewarded. I’m really pleased it  could be done in front of my supporters. I’m just really,  really overjoyed.” His mother, Miriam Richards, and his sister, were among a small crowd of spectators who watched him achieve the feat.