NEW Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) president Lyndel Norman Gordon Wright has received a rousing endorsement from former West Indies captain and legendary cricketer Sir Vivian Richards.

Wright, who crossed paths with Sir Viv during a first-class career that lasted 11 years between 1968 and 1979, defeated incumbent JCA Paul Campbell during the voting session of the organisation’s contentious annual general meeting held in Kingston last Wednesday.

‘Mud’ or ‘Muddy’ Wright as he is called, bowled legspin and was a dependable right-handed batsman during his time. He is the brother of another Jamaica and West Indies great O’Neil Gordon “Collie” Smith, who died in a motor vehicle accident in England in 1959 after a car driven by the world’s greatest all-rounder Sir Garfield Sobers got out of control and crashed.

“I can only wish him the very best. Knowing ‘Muddy’ over the years he will do a good job. He is one of my favourite individuals,” Sir Viv said in an interview with the Observer last week during a visit to Jamaica to promote a ‘Responsible Drinking’ campaign put on by Scotch Whisky distillers, Johnnie Walker.

Sir Viv believes that the 61-year-old Wright, two years his senior, will make a good impression on cricket in Jamaica and the region.

“What happens in Jamaica’s cricket affects the regional cricket. So long as we have the right people in places at the territorial level and when we meet at the board level of West Indies cricket the right decisions can be made, we will be on the right track.

“It’s a decent choice (Wright’s selection). Let’s hope that we are gonna get some results,” he said.

Antiguan Sir Viv, a veteran of 121 Test matches and 187 one-day internationals joked that he could not remember whether or not he was one of Wright’s 40 first class victims for Jamaica, but believes that the West Kingston-born Wright was good as a bowler.

“I can’t remember him getting my wicket, but if that happened maybe it was during a practice match,” Sir Viv joked. “He was a good enough bowler though, a good student of the game. And for a guy from my period to be in charge of Jamaica’s cricket now in this way, I can only offer him congratulations. He is a guy whom I have admired for many years. I have always felt that ‘Muddy’ was a decent guy. So seeing him now in this capacity, I hope that the changes that are needed to be made will be made,” Sir Viv said.

During his playing years Wright, a Kingston Technical High School past student with an engineering background and a former long-time employee of the National Sugar Company, took two five-wicket hauls for Jamaica. He was also a member of the national team that won their first regional four-day title, then called the Shell Shield, in 1969, under the leadership of Easton “Bull” McMorris.

His best was five for 36 against Barbados in the first innings of a Shell Shield match at Jarrett Park, Montego Bay in April 1975, a performance that went well with Jeffrey Dujon’s first innings 110 that enabled Jamaica to gain first innings points.

Wright also took five for 134 against Trinidad & Tobago again at Jarrett Park two years later, but had to share the limelight with captain Maurice Foster, who hit a career best 234 and Richard “Danny Germs” Austin, who made 131 in Jamaica’s healthy only innings score of 563 for nine, enroute to first innings points over the visitors.

Foster had earlier got a harsh tongue lashing from a top radio commentator who accused him of being at a disco until the wee hours of the same morning that he completed his double ton.

Wright, who played his last match against Guyana at Bourda in 1979, also scored 316 runs at an average of 16.63.

He heads a JCA executive that will seek to shrug off claims and counter claims of mismanagement by officials of the game and try to resurrect the image of the sport that has also been ignored by Corporate Jamaica in sponsoring cricket-related activities in recent years.