The Caribbean Community has lost another of its heroes.
After winning most of his battles on the field, Roy Clinton Fredericks lost the most lethal one off the field when he succumbed to throat cancer on 5 September, 2000. Roy Fredericks was one of those ambassadors of the Region’s most popular sport, cricket, who inspired a generation of West Indians and in the process won the admiration of the people of the Caribbean.
At five feet six and one half inches, Roy Fredericks was not large in physique but he used his skills and brains to become a fine cricketer for Guyana and the West Indies. He was a pugnacious left hander who played 59 tests, scored 4, 334 runs at an average of 42.49. He entered West Indies cricket at a time when the game was going though a lean spell and developed into a classical opening batsman. He was also a sound cricket analyst.
As a West Indies player, he not only excelled with the bat but also became one of the finest short leg and gully fielders in the game, an achievement which was a result of his request, when fielding, to be placed near to the wicket.
As a batsman, Fredericks will be remembered for a classic 169 runs which he scored against a blistering Australian attack on a fast Perth pitch during the West Indies 1975/76 tour of Australia. He remains one of the few West Indian batsmen to score a century against every test team he played.
Upon his retirement from cricket – a move that many have described as premature, Roy Fredericks returned to Guyana where he continued to serve with distinction. He was at one time the Minister of Sports; a member of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its selection committee; a member of the Guyana Cricket Board and its selection committee; a Guyana national coach; and, at the time of his death, an advisor to the Minister of Sports on cricket.
He is indeed among that special breed of West Indian cricketers who served his country and the Region with distinction.
On behalf of the Caribbean Community, its Secretariat, and on my own behalf, I extend to the Fredericks family, the Government and people of Guyana, and to the cricketing community, heartfelt condolences on the lost of this outstanding West Indian.
In honour of this great West Indian, the CARICOM Secretariat will be officially represented at the funeral.
