Lequay Calls it Quits

Alloy Lequay, chief executive officer of the T&T Cricket Board (T&TCB) has gone on pre-retirement leave from December 31, 2004.

However, he still plans to visit the offices of the local board at the National Cricket Centre in Couva, once per week to attend to unfinished business. Lequay, who celebrated his 80th birthday last October, has been the president of the board for 25 years and its CEO for the past eight years.

The executive of the T&TCB will meet on January 13 to appoint an acting CEO. In the meantime, it is understood that Lequay?s job will be carried out by the general secretary, Anand Daniel, and administrative manager Rambhai Patel.

Lequay?s career in sport started with his involvement in table tennis in 1944. This led to his being the chief delegate of the T&T team to the People?s Republic of China in 1972.

Lequay was a livewire in the sport, eventually bowing out as president and general secretary of the Caribbean Federation in 1973.

One of his greatest contributions to sport came when, as a member of the parliamentary opposition, he was appointed by the then Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams, to head the Village Olympics Committee in 1972.

He was also the leader of government business in the senate during the tenure in office of the National Alliance for Reconstruction 1986-91.

Another major achievement for Lequay was the decentralisation of the game which, up to the 1970s, was under the control of the Queen?s Park Cricket Club. The Reece Commission eventually ruled that there must be an independent body for cricket.

Lequay championed the cause for the decentralisation of the game to give players from rural communities greater representation at a higher level.

He was also the livewire behind the construction of the Sir Frank Worrell Development Centre at Balmain, Couva.

The centre houses a full-sized playing field, on which two turf pitches are already laid, indoor nets, a dormitory, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, video facilities and a library.

Lequay?s career as a cricket administrator also began in 1945, when he was the assistant secretary of the Elljay Cricket Competition and secretary of Oxford Club.

He was an active member of the Trinidad Cricket Council, which was formed in 1956.

Lequay was elected president of the T&T Cricket Board in 1981, and held the position until 2003. He also served for many years on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

He is a member of the Local Organising Committee for Cricket World Cup 2007.

* This article appears by special arrangement with the Trinidad Guardian.