Antiguan government bestows knighthood on Vivian Richards (4 January 1999)

Antiguan government bestows knighthood on Vivian Richards

Rick Eyre for CricInfo 5 January 1999 _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________

5 Jan 1999, 0015 GMT: West Indian batting legend Viv Richards has been knighted in his native Antigua.

The Caribbean News Agency is reporting today that the knighthood was announced by Antiguan Prime Minister Bird in his New Year's message.

News of the knighthood first broke internationally when reported on the South African Broadcasting Corporation's radio and television commentary of the Fourth Test at Cape Town on Sunday.

Confusion reigned when the British Foreign Office denied that Richards was on the Queen's New Years honours list. In fact Richards was knighted under an order bestowed by the Antiguan government, and therefore not administered by the Foreign Office.

Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, played 121 Tests for the West Indies between 1974 and 1991. He scored 8540 runs at 50.23 including 24 Test hundreds, the highest being 291 against England at The Oval in 1976.

Written for CricInfo by Rick Eyre (rick@cricinfo.com)