For­mer pres­i­dent and chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of the T&T Crick­et Board (T&TCB) Dr Al­loy Lequay was yes­ter­day de­scribed as a sen­si­tive man, who was very pro­fes­sion­al and al­ways sought the best in­ter­est of what he rep­re­sent­ed.

Lequay, 90, passed away ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing.

For­mer West In­dies bat­ting great, Bri­an Lara said he was deeply sad­dened to learn of Lequay's death. "When I re­flect on my com­ing in­to Trinidad crick­et as a teenag­er, there are on­ly two faces that come to mind–Joey Carew, who left us four years ago and Al­loy Lequay, who left us to­day (yes­ter­day)."

Lara said that al­though he re­tired from crick­et sev­en years ago, every time he thought about Trinidad crick­et, the name that comes to mind is Al­loy Lequay.

"I think of my ad­vent in­to the na­tion­al scene more than 30 years ago and Dr Lequay was there. When I left, he was still there. He was al­ways the man be­hind the face of T&T crick­et, who al­ways want­ed the best," he said.

Lara said Dr Lequay leaves be­hind a sol­id foun­da­tion and a lega­cy of hard work and suc­cess.

"He changed the for­tunes and di­rec­tions of crick­et in the coun­try. He was sen­si­tive, sen­si­ble and a true pro­fes­sion­al," Lara said.

Al­so pay­ing trib­ute to Lequay was the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee.

In ex­tend­ing con­do­lences to Dr Lequay's fam­i­ly and friends, the TTOC said he left an in­deli­ble mark dur­ing his long and mer­i­to­ri­ous con­tri­bu­tion to sport and the his­to­ry of sport in T&T and the Caribbean.

"He played a key role in the de-cen­tral­i­sa­tion of crick­et and was in­flu­en­tial in Ta­ble Ten­nis.

"It was the vi­sion of the for­mer crick­et ad­min­is­tra­tor to ac­quire lands for a Na­tion­al Crick­et Cen­tre, which hous­es among oth­er things the Sir Frank Wor­rell De­vel­op­ment Cen­tre and an in­ter­na­tion­al-size crick­et field."

Dr Lequay en­joyed a dis­tin­guished ca­reer in both sports ad­min­is­tra­tion (crick­et and ta­ble-ten­nis) and in pol­i­tics, serv­ing as Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor, and Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness in the House of Par­lia­ment dur­ing his colour­ful ca­reer in the pub­lic do­main.

He is wide­ly re­gard­ed as the ar­chi­tect of T&T's de­vel­op­ment as a re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et pow­er­house and for trans­form­ing the T&TCB in­to one of the best run or­gan­i­sa­tions in the Caribbean.

Born in Port-of-Spain ("Be­hind the Bridge"), Lequay was recog­nised by the peo­ple of T&T with a na­tion­al award, the Cha­co­nia Gold Medal, in 1988 and al­so con­ferred with an hon­orary Doc­tor­ate of Law from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.

MORE IN­FO

?Fol­low­ing is a syn­op­sis of Dr Lequay's dis­tin­guished ca­reer:

�2 Pres­i­dent, CEO of T&T Crick­et Board

�2 Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment (1966-1971), Na­pari­ma South

�2 Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor (NAR Ad­min­is­tra­tion)

�2 Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness (Sen­ate)

�2 Founder of Ox­ford Crick­et Club (San Fer­nan­do)

�2 Gen­er­al-Sec­re­tary, T&T Ta­ble-Ten­nis As­so­ci­a­tion

�2 Chair­man, Best Vil­lage Olympics 1972

�2 Mem­ber, West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB)

�2 Au­thor