BRIDGETOWN–The West In­dies Re­tired Play­ers Foun­da­tion has ex­pressed great de­light with Sun­day's char­i­ty golf event, which was staged at Sandy Lane Coun­try Club.

The event was joint­ly host­ed by the West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) and the West In­dies Play­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (WIPA), and sup­port­ed by the Hero Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) and Dig­i­cel.

Close to 70 play­ers reg­is­tered for the event in­clud­ing for­mer West In­dies play­ers Sir Vi­vian Richards, Desmond Haynes, Sir Richie Richard­son, Jeff Du­jon, Ian Bish­op, Phil Sim­mons; as well as cur­rent in­ter­na­tion­al play­ers Dwayne Smith, Ma­hela Jayawar­de­na of Sri Lan­ka and Daniel Vet­tori of New Zealand. Sev­er­al mem­bers of the In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed.

The West In­dies Re­tired Play­ers Foun­da­tion was formed 18 months ago and part of its man­date is the de­vel­op­ment of pro­grammes and as­sist­ing with the wel­fare of for­mer play­ers who rep­re­sent­ed the Caribbean team at the in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el.

Dave Cameron, pres­i­dent of the WICB said: "We want to say a huge and heart­felt thank you to every­one who turned out on Sun­day to sup­port the on­go­ing work of the West In­dies Re­tired Play­ers As­so­ci­a­tion. This is the first time we have host­ed a golf day and it was a huge suc­cess. Every­one en­joyed the day and at the end of the day it is the play­ers who will ben­e­fit."

Wavell Hinds, pres­i­dent of the WIPA said: "Crick­et has giv­en us so much and it is won­der­ful to see per­sons giv­ing back to this great game as many braved the weath­er to show their sup­port for this wor­thy cause. It was de­light to see the for­mer play­ers and cur­rent play­ers rub­bing shoul­ders with fans and crick­et lovers and this helped to raise the pro­file of the event as well."

Dr Nigel Ca­ma­cho, pres­i­dent of the WIRPF said: "Sun­day's golf day was an over­whelm­ing suc­cess and we at WIRPF are pleased to see the wide cross sec­tion of per­sons who par­tic­i­pat­ed in­clud­ing leg­ends of the game; crick­eters past and present; and many oth­er per­sons who have West In­dies crick­et at heart. This mar­velous ini­tia­tive will help to ac­cel­er­ate the work which we start­ed last year as we give back to those who have giv­en us so much."