LON­DON – Leg­endary West In­dies cap­tain Sir Clive Lloyd was on Wednes­day for­mal­ly award­ed his Knight­hood, dur­ing an in­vesti­ture cer­e­mo­ny per­formed by the Duke of Cam­bridge, Prince William, at Wind­sor Cas­tle.

The 77-year-old was con­ferred with the Knight­hood in the Queen’s New Year Ho­n­ours list back in 2020 “for his ser­vices to crick­et” but the cer­e­mo­ny had been scup­pered by the on­set of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

On Wednes­day, Sir Clive was joined in the cer­e­mo­ny by Eng­land white-ball cap­tain Eoin Mor­gan who was ho­n­oured with a Com­man­der of the Or­der of the British Em­pire (CBE).

In a state­ment, Crick­et West In­dies pres­i­dent Ricky Sker­ritt hailed the “uni­fy­ing lead­er­ship” of Sir Clive’s tenure, which was high­light­ed by the cap­ture of the first two 50-over World Cups in 1975 and 1979 in Eng­land.

“On be­half of CWI and every­one in­volved in West In­dies crick­et, I want to of­fer hearti­est con­grat­u­la­tions to Sir Clive on this tremen­dous ho­n­our,” Sker­ritt said.

“Sir Clive holds a spe­cial place in crick­et his­to­ry as the first man to lift the Crick­et World Cup, which brought tremen­dous pride and joy to West In­di­ans all over the world.

“That vic­to­ry at Lords was a huge­ly sig­nif­i­cant mo­ment in West In­dies crick­et when we demon­strat­ed we were the best team in the world, with the uni­fy­ing style of Sir Clive’s lead­er­ship stand­ing out.

“Sir Clive has made a mas­sive con­tri­bu­tion to the growth of the game in the West In­dies and glob­al­ly, and crick­et fans every­where should wel­come this most fit­ting ac­co­lade.”

West In­dies be­came the world’s most dom­i­nant side un­der Sir Clive, en­joy­ing a fa­mous streak of 27 Test match­es with­out de­feat, in­clud­ing 11 wins in a row.

He suc­cess­ful­ly mold­ed a side that in­clud­ed the likes of Sir Vi­vian Richards, Sir Gor­don Greenidge and Sir Andy Roberts.

Sir Clive, a left-han­der, scored 7 515 from 110 Tests and 1 977 runs from 87 One-Day In­ter­na­tion­als, in a ca­reer that spanned two decades.

Since his re­tire­ment, he has served in var­i­ous roles as In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil match ref­er­ee, on the ICC crick­et com­mit­tee, and as West In­dies team man­ag­er and chief se­lec­tor.

(CMC)