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A great servant of West Indies cricket has passed on and while we send our deepest condolences to his family and friends we should also pay tribute to his tremendous service to West Indies cricket both as a player and administrator.
First as a cricketer he had the rather unusual record of representing both Trinidad and Barbados in regional cricket.After playing 2 first class matches for Barbados against Trinidad,he then represented T&T vs Barbados while studying agriculture at UWI in Trinidad.
After rather modest returns in the inaugural Shell Shield in 1966, he was selected for the 1966 tour of England, where he surprised his critics by making a century against Lancashire prior to the first test.It was his first score greater than 40 in a first class match and he made his test debut at Old Trafford soon after.He joined his cousin the incomparable Garry Sobers and the two added over 100 runs in a sixth wicket partnership.In the next test match with WI staring defeat, just 9 runs on and 5 wickets down Holford again joined his cousin and the two added over 250 runs with both scoring centuries.It was the beginning of a transformation of David Holford.Previously he was somewhat of an extremely nervous starter but once Garry was at the other end he was confident and successful.Nearly all of Holford's significant scores in test cricket occurred when he started off batting with his cousin.
Holford's test carer seemed to end in 1972 but Clive Lloyd had one last rodeo for him and he was recalled for the final test against Pakistan in 1977.Lloyd felt that the extra bounce at Sabina would help his leg breaks and he took 5 wickets in the match to help WI win the test and the series.It was a fitting end to his test career and he then turned his prolific intellectual skills to help WI cricket from the Boardroom.
David Holford as a selector and manager was responsible for putting in place good procedures and thoughtful analysis in assessing situations and players and in his quiet manner made a tremendous contribution to the dominance of WI cricket.
Fans of WI cricket mourn the loss of a great one.
Rest In Peace Mr. Holford you were a great servant of West Indies cricket.

In reply to Dukes

wonderful write-up, Dukes.

Requiescat in pace

Is that where the saying “cousin and cousin makes dozens “ emanate from???

Thanks for the history lesson, that was little before my time!
May his soul RIP.

In reply to Dukes
Watching him at Sabina made me want to bowl legspin. but Alas; to no avail.
80% of my deliveries would be the Googly about 10% legbreak and the rest plus many of the googs because of length or line were rubbish!
I think even though I used wrist and the back of the hand was facing the bowler I was in fact bowling lots of off-break lollipops.
RIP David Holford you entertained me in both WI and Rothmans X1 colors.

RIP David Holford. One day we will have a debate on this board whether the 1960s team with Sobers at his best, Holford, Kanhai, Hunte, Butcher, Nurse, Gibbs, Hall and Griffith were the second best era of WI cricket to date and probably more multidimensional than even the great team of the 1980s.

In reply to Dukesc

Thanks for confirming the above, I post that he obtain a BSc in Arg.and Cosmo said it did not exist.


Great tribute my friend.

In reply to Dukes

May he RIP
David was a member of the enemy, which consisted of Wes Hall, Cammie Smith, Peter Lashley, Anthony Howard, Anthony Mayers and everyone from around the city.

In reply to openning

I take it you are not from Upper Collymore Rock, St Michael!!!!!!!!

In reply to Dukes
I was 100% Blue.

Barbados best regional captain.

I recall him as a selector touting the one selection he showed faith in and he ended up boasting about :a young Shivnarine Chanderpaul

In reply to Dukes

Thanks, Agreed , Holford was a scholar and a gentleman . RIP

In reply to VoopsandOut

MB debated this the 60's and 80's teams were WI best. You left out Hendricks from the great 60's lineup.

Pound for pound teams evenly matched Sobers is the X factor

Holford was involved in 4 century partnerships in test cricket

1.Holford and Sobers 127 runs at Old Trafford England 1966

2.Holford and Sobers 274* runs at Lords England 1966

3.Holford and Sobers 110 at Sabina Park,Jamaica 1968

4.Holford and Hendriks 122 at Adelaide,Australia 1969

In reply to tc1

Dude! you said he did a BSc ,in Agricultural Engineering and I said that was not true, the Ag Engineering program at UWI started long after his time, I remember quite a few people that came to McGill because there was no AG Eng in TT then.

Or you may have said soil physics.

In reply to camos

what is the degree he obtained while studying at UWI at St. Augustine?

In reply to Raisedseam

Thanks, and yes i remembered him after. I wish I had seen that debate. perhaps 80s team had the bowling advantage but in batting, they were definitely on par with perhaps the 60s team having the advantage. Both great teams and hopefully the 20s team will one day be mentioned in the same breath if we get King, Hety, Pooran, Hope and da Silva firing in the middle, Brathwaite and Tage starting us off and Aljo, Seales, Motie, Holder, Keemo and Mayers getting us the wickets.

In reply to tc1

he got a BSc in Agriculture and later did a Masters at McGill as I remember it.

In reply to camos


Thanks, as a youngster I heard he study Agriculture at St Augustine and assumed that it was an Engineering degree since ST A was an engineering school. I also knew he had a Masters.

Wes said he give him the nickname of 'soils'.

In reply to tc1

Before St Aug became the Engineering school, it was the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture. Famous worldwide for Agri studies and generations of Bajan students attended. I grew up in St Aug and my parents always welcomed students to our house for a meal and a chat in the 60s. One would come and bring a friend. Then that friend would start coming and bring a friend and so on. Really nice times. I suppose it was their way of encouraging us to try to go to Uni in our time.

In reply to VoopsandOut

I had a few teachers at JSA who were graduates of that College,they were very impressive in soil science!

In reply to VoopsandOut

Thanks, never knew that there was an Imperial College before St. Aug. My wish was to go to St. Aug as a youngster.

In reply to VoopsandOut True. My father studied at ICTA before doing a Bsc and Msc at UBC.

RIP Mr Holford