Thank you Mr Chairman.

Your Excellency Governor General, Honourable Ministers of Government, High Commissioner, Awardees, Honoured guests and cricketers. It is my pleasant duty this evening to say welcome on behalf of Cricket West Indies, including our entire Board and Management. It is an honour for me to be here among so many world class current and past cricketers.

I take this opportunity to say a special thank you to the Indian team for attending this event tonight, and to congratulate captain Kohli and his team on their impressive victories in the T20 and ODI series. Allow me also to congratulate Coach Shastri on his recent contract renewal as head coach. I also take this opportunity to publicly big up our own Chris Gayle, who unfortunately is not here tonight, for his recent career record achievement in ODI Cricket.

It has been a pleasure for Cricket West Indies to host the Indian squads in Fort Lauderdale, in Guyana, and in Trinidad. And From what we have seen so far, we can expect an exciting and competitive upcoming test series. In that regard I must also congratulate the local man, Rahkeem Cornwall, on gaining his first selection at this level. I wish Mr Cornwall much success if given the nod into the first XI, and I wish both teams good skills and good luck, starting this Thursday here in Antigua.

To the current West Indies squad, I want to remind you that I am first and foremost a fan of West Indies cricket, and I am not a selector. All of you therefore have my personal support at all times, no matter who you are playing against, or which of you makes it into the final XI.

It is the stated mission of Vice President Shallow and myself to work hard on behalf of all stakeholders to generate adequate resources, to create an environment that will be more conducive for achieving excellence, and to always put cricket first. I am confident that with God’s help, with good decision-making, with relevance and persistence, and with goodwill from our stakeholders, we all will soon be performing at our best on a more consistent basis.

In closing, I thank President Hinds and WIPA for their continued partnership, and I commend all of tonight’s awardees for the hard work that would have brought them such deserved recognition. Success comes from a mixture of various inputs and support systems but, in the final analysis, outstanding individual achievement is usually the result of individual hard work. I trust that hard work will become the mantra of all West Indian cricketers and administrators going forward. Thank you and enjoy the evening.