By Neto Baptiste
Former president of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA), Zorol Barthley, is taking the body to task over what he labels a shameful lack of enthusiasm in recognising the 50th anniversary of when the country’s first international cricketer, Sir Andy Roberts, made his debut for the West Indies senior men’s team.
Sir Andy celebrated the milestone on March 6, after having made his historic debut on the same date in 1974 against England in Barbados.
“In my opinion, it is the single most significant day in the history of Antigua sports, and to get to his occasion and to just have it as if it never happened, I really think it is a slap in the face. I am very disappointed and I am bordering on saying that I am even ashamed that I am a member of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association,” he said.
Barthley, also a former West Indies Under 19 cricket Captain and batsman, and a former Chief Cricket Operations Officer for the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), said Sir Andy has played a huge role in putting Antigua and Barbuda on the map as a cricketing nation, and he deserves recognition on what should have been a day celebrated on a national scale.
“To get to this occasion and we’re just like ‘oh, it was just another day’. It was not just another day, it cannot just be another day. I feel gutted, I feel ashamed that we are at this occasion and we are still literally begging for this kind of recognition. We are preparing for a World Cup, we’ve hosted World Cups, we’ve hosted multiple England tours over and over, and we’ve made millions off the back of this thing called cricket and this work that someone like Sir Andy has done and we are at a stage of still trying to beg for this kind of recognition,” he said.
Barthley, also a local commentator, said that as far back as last year, he had made attempts to “nudge’ the powers that be in the right direction.
“I remember in August when I was given the opportunity to deliver the eulogy at Ralston Otto’s funeral in 2023, in about the third to last paragraph I said that March 2024 will mark 50 years since the first Antiguan, Sir Andy Roberts, played International cricket and, hopefully, we’ll soon hear the grand declaration that, as a country, we will celebrate this golden jubilee in a big way because we have much to celebrate.
“I did say that Rolston deserves an honourable mention but at that point in time maybe I was the only person remembering that this occasion was coming because of how I think and how I go about the memory of this great sport and of this great country; so that, to me, was a nudge,” the former player said.
The association, on Wednesday, issued a short statement congratulating Sir Andy on the milestone achievement.
Sir Andy claimed 202 wickets in 47 Test matches and another 87 in 56 One Day International (ODI) matches. It took Sir Andy less than two and a-half years to reach 100 Test wickets, the quickest at that point, and his best years were unquestionably in the middle 1970s, before the Packer revolution.