By Neto Baptiste
Former national and Leeward Islands all-rounder, Keith “Fredo” Frederick, believes that although his regional career was short-lived, he was one of the better cricket prospects coming out of Antigua during his era.
The longstanding groundsman who served as head curator at the historic Antigua Recreation Grounds (ARG) for many years, recounted his first and final sting with the sub-regional squad.
“As a cricketer, I only played two limited overs games for the Leeward Islands and my average is 46 point something. The first match I played against Barbados was a one-day game at the Antigua Recreation Grounds, and they had Malcolm Marshall, Hartley Alleyne and all kinds of big stars and I was the Man of the Match after I scored 71 and took three [wickets] for 21 runs, and after that I only got to play one more game,” he said.
Frederick, who recently received a national award for his contribution to sports, reminded that he twice held the record for most runs in the national league.
“I was part of the Combined Islands team that went to Trinidad after that, and the next year, the Combined Islands and the Leeward Islands split and then when they picked a Leeward Islands 18-man squad to train, I could not make that team. But I continued to play cricket and just loving cricket and just continued to score runs in Antigua like rain. I honestly don’t believe anyone else has more First Class runs than I have,” he said.
“I have broken the record [most runs] twice, scoring 185 and then going back and scoring another 195 to break my own record until some other people came along and scored double-centuries. I played First Class cricket until I was about 45 years old,” he added.
Frederick received The Most Precious Order of Princely Heritage (OH) for his distinguished and outstanding contribution in the field of sports.
He was a key figure behind the country’s drive to prepare the Antigua Recreation Grounds for cricket in 2009 after the second Test between West Indies and England was abandoned after 10 balls because of an unfit outfield at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.