Tony Cozier lauds Worrell’s leadership

“From that moment, West Indies cricket took an upward leap,” Cozier said.

The noted Barbadian made this statement on Tuesday night, during a special tribute on the 60th anniversary of the late Sir Frank Worrell’s Test debut.

The occasion also marked the first appearance in a Test match of the 3Ws (Worrell, Sir Everton Weekes and Sir Clyde Walcott) and the lone Test of Andy Ganteame’s career.

The tribute was staged at the Banquet Hall, Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair under the auspices of the Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Committee.

Cozier noted that the heroes of most Caribbean cricket fans during his childhood days were the 3Ws. He said that Worrell had a close association with his (Cozier’s) father Jimmy, who was a leading cricket correspondent in the 1940s and 1950s. “When I covered my first tour of England in 1963, that (prior) association with my father led Sir Frank to pass on a number of philosophies to me on my first tour,” Cozier remarked.

“He would look after me,” he said. “From that moment I came to realise what type of individual he was even though I was not in the same team,” he said.

Cozier highlighted a number of factors which ensured that Worrell’s legacy will always survive. He spoke about Worrell’s rise from humble beginnings to knighthood in 1964 — the second WI cricketer to receive that honour (Sir Learie Constantine of Trinidad and Tobago was the first).

Born in Bank Hall on the outskirts of Bridgetown, Barbados on August 1 1924, he developed his skills at the neighbouring Empire Cricket Ground and as a student at Combermere School until he moved to Jamaica in 1947.

Cozier noted that Worrell migrated to Jamaica since he was unable to deal with the racial divide in Barbados.

The cricketing scribe also noted that Worrell made his First-Class debut for Barbados against Trinidad and Tobago at the Queen’s Park Oval, batting at number 11 in the order as a left- arm spinner in 1942. Six years later, he will make his Test debut at the same venue versus England.

In 51 Tests, Worrell scored 3,860 runs at an average of 49.48 with nine centuries and 22 half-centuries, while claiming 69 wickets with his left-arm pace at an average of 38.72.

In 208 First-Class games, he scored 15,025 runs at an average of 54.24 and took 349 wickets at 28.98.

The first black cricketer to be appointed full-time captain of the West Indies, for the 1960-61 tour of Australia, (George Headley was actually the first black player to captain the team in 1948), the team won the hearts of many thousands of Australians.

They even gave the Windies a ticker-tape farewell in Melbourne and dedicated the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy to the team’s honour.

The holder of a degree in economics from the University of Manchester, England, Worrell, upon his retirement in 1963, became the Windies team manager (for the home series against Australia in 1965) and a senator in Jamaica.

He was also instrumental in the growth of the University of the West Indies (UWI) — the Sir Frank Worrell Oval at the St Augustine campus was named in his honour — until his death from leukemia at the Mona Hospital, Kingston, Jamaica on March 13, 1967.

Cozier also touched on Worrell’s memorial service at the Westminster Abbey in London, the first cricketer (deceased of course) to be remembered in such a way (he was buried on the UWI Cave Hill campus in Barbados), while his face is emblazoned on the Barbados $5 note.

“One of the South African journalists at the World Cup last year said he was having a great time in Barbados and Sir Frank Worrell was buying him drinks,” Cozier related, referring to Telford Vice. “I said ‘You sure?’ Sir Frank Worrell died in 1967, you must be (referring) to a different Worrell. He said, “No, a $5 note”.”

Cozier commended the Committee for keeping Worrell’s legacy alive, since, “in Barbados we have been very lax.”

Bostonville, Worrell’s childhood home, was in a state of ruin for several years, as it became abandoned in the early 1990s.

“Belatedly, (the Barbados Government) decided to put it down and build a museum in his memory,” Cozier said. “It is nothing more than it should have been done many, many years ago.”

Also honoured at Tuesday’s ceremony were the 87-year-old Ganteaume, who played his lone Test in February 1948 (scoring 112) and the 83-year-old Weekes.

Professor Baldwin Mootoo, a former member of the then Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control (now TTCB), TTCB president Deryck Murray and Professor Courtney Bartholomew also delivered addresses on the night, while the programme was interspersed with performances from calypsonian Relator and singer Wendy Sheppard.

A number of past WI cricketers were in attendance, including Michael Holding, Lance Gibbs, Willie Rodriguez and Rangy Nanan, as well as former West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Ken Gordon and WICB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bruce Aanensen, current Windies team manager Omar Khan and TT team manager Colin Borde.