Cricket fraternity stages ceremonial send-off for former Windies spinner Reggie Scarlett
Relatives , teammates, friends and admirers turned up at Sabina Park recently to say a symbolic final farewell to former West Indies and Jamaica off-spinner Reggie Scarlett who died on August 14 last year in England, one day short of his 85th birthday.
Scarlett’s widow, Trish, and his friend and teammate – going back to school days at Wolmer’s Boys’ – former West Indies wicketkeeper and Jamaica Captain Jackie Hendriks ceremonially spread Scarlett’s ashes at the northern end of Sabina Park.
From that end, contemporaries say, many a batsman had to cope with Scarlett’s off-breaks, spun with such venom, that the ball could be heard buzzing through the air.
The spreading of Scarlett’s ash at Sabina to symbolically bring his “final innings to an end” was in sync with his wedding to Trish at the same venue on February 1, 1991.
Born in Port Maria, St Mary, on August 15, 1934, Scarlett played three Tests for the West Indies as well as 17 first-class games.
After retirement from first-class cricket in 1960, he settled in England where he spent 15 years coaching and playing league cricket. Scarlett then returned to Jamaica to oversee the Youth Development Programme of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA).
He relocated to England four years later and put his energy into grass roots development and was the brain behind the Haringey Cricket College, which produced several leading county and Test players for England.
He subsequently returned to the Caribbean and became the first director of coaching of the West Indies Cricket Board, now Cricket West Indies (CWI), and supported Dr Rudi Webster in the establishment of the Shell Cricket Academy on the campus of the St George’s University in Grenada.
As a teenager, Scarlett represented Wolmer’s Boys’ School in Sunlight Cup Cricket and moved on to represent the Kingston Cricket Club in the Senior Cup Competition.
At the reflection on the life of Scarlett at Sabina Park on January 28, those paying tribute included Sir Clive Lloyd, Michael Holding, Hendriks, and brother Robert.
Acknowledgements of Scarlett’s contribution to cricket were contained in messages from the Kingston Cricket Club, CWI, the JCA and the West Indies Players’ Association.
