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Tuesday, July 22, 2025

CWI/WIPA Awards honour 1975 World Cup Legends with riveting and unforgettable tribute

by

Sport Desk
27 days ago
20250626

St John’s, An­tigua – The eighth edi­tion of the Crick­et West In­dies (CWI)/West In­dies Play­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion (WIPA) Awards reached a pow­er­ful crescen­do on Sun­day as the bod­ies de­liv­ered an un­for­get­table and emo­tion­al trib­ute to the pi­o­neers of West In­dies crick­et — the leg­endary 1975 ICC Men’s Crick­et World Cup-win­ning team.

Host­ed in the el­e­gant Tri­dent Ball­room at the Wyn­d­ham Grand Bar­ba­dos, the evening was a heart­felt cel­e­bra­tion of re­gion­al pride, sport­ing great­ness, and en­dur­ing lega­cy.

The cer­e­mo­ny paid homage to the squad that re­shaped the crick­et­ing world 50 years ago. With a trib­ute rich in his­to­ry, nos­tal­gia, and Caribbean spir­it, the event ho­n­oured the un­matched lega­cy of the 1975 cham­pi­ons — the first-ever win­ners of the ICC Men’s Crick­et World Cup.

The seg­ment fea­tured rare archival footage, com­pelling sto­ry­telling, and thun­der­ous stand­ing ova­tions, as sur­viv­ing team mem­bers or their fam­i­lies were pre­sent­ed with com­mem­o­ra­tive medal­lions and ex­quis­ite­ly craft­ed ma­hogany sculp­tures. These one-of-a-kind pieces — carved from 25-year-old, aged Bar­ba­dos ma­hogany — were de­signed by award-win­ning artist Regi­nald Med­ford, with each sculp­ture re­flect­ing the unique iden­ti­ty and con­tri­bu­tions of the re­cip­i­ent.

CWI pres­i­dent Dr Kishore Shal­low de­liv­ered a mov­ing trib­ute, ho­n­our­ing the he­roes whose vic­to­ry sparked a gold­en age in West In­dies crick­et. He said: “Tonight, we ho­n­our our gi­ants. Those present — in­clud­ing Sir Viv Richards, Lancelot Gibbs, Col­lis King, Deryck Mur­ray, Sir Andy Roberts, Alvin Kallichar­ran, those whose were un­able to be here, and the in­com­pa­ra­ble Sir Clive Lloyd — and we al­so salute those who have passed, such as Roy Fredricks, Kei­th Boyce, and team man­ag­er Clyde Wal­cott. You were not just crick­eters. You were rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies.”

Dr Shal­low al­so an­nounced a fi­nan­cial to­ken of ap­pre­ci­a­tion, say­ing: “In ad­di­tion to the medal­lions and ob­jets d’art you will re­ceive tonight, I am pleased to share that, on be­half of the CWI Board, each of our icons in at­ten­dance will be gift­ed US$10,000.”

He ac­knowl­edged the sup­port of the Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) in mak­ing the ges­ture pos­si­ble and added: “This is by no means your val­ue to crick­et, but a small ex­pres­sion of our deep grat­i­tude.”

In a stir­ring mo­ment, Sir Clive Lloyd pre­sent­ed a spe­cial gift to pres­i­dent Shal­low on be­half of the 1975 team — a strik­ing por­trait of the World Cup-win­ning squad. The art­work was com­mis­sioned from ac­claimed Bar­ba­di­an fine artist Shane East­mond, grand­son of the late An­tiguan crick­et great, Sir Sid­ney Walling.

Vet­er­an broad­cast­er and com­men­ta­tor Joseph ‘Reds’ Per­reira was al­so recog­nised for his long­stand­ing ser­vice and con­tri­bu­tion to the game.

Form­ing part of the week­end of ac­tiv­i­ties, the CWI Board of Di­rec­tors al­so held a sig­nif­i­cant and in­ter­ac­tive meet­ing ear­li­er in the day. With a shared view of im­prov­ing team per­for­mances, the Board en­gaged in frank dis­cus­sion about the chal­lenges cur­rent­ly fac­ing West In­dies crick­et and em­pha­sized the im­por­tance of an in­clu­sive, col­lab­o­ra­tive, stake­hold­er-dri­ven ap­proach to re­build­ing suc­cess.

The con­ver­sa­tion was en­riched by the pres­ence of a dis­tin­guished del­e­ga­tion of crick­et­ing leg­ends — Sir Lloyd, Sir Roberts, Mur­ray, and Kallichar­ran — who of­fered in­valu­able in­sights and re­flec­tions drawn from their era of dom­i­nance.

As past and present play­ers, crick­et of­fi­cials, and dig­ni­taries looked on, the spir­it of 1975 was reignit­ed — a vivid re­minder that the heart­beat of Caribbean crick­et has long echoed across the glob­al stage.

More than a cel­e­bra­tion, the 50th an­niver­sary trib­ute served as a ral­ly­ing call to to­day’s gen­er­a­tion — to ho­n­our the lega­cy by forg­ing new paths of great­ness. (CWI Me­dia)


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