QPCC extends condolence tribute to Charles ‘Charlie’ Davis

On be­half of the man­age­ment com­mit­tee and mem­bers of Queen’s Park Crick­et Club (QPCC) and its wider fam­i­ly, we wish to ex­press our deep­est con­do­lences on the pass­ing of for­mer West In­dies crick­eter Char­lie Davis at the age of 82.

Pres­i­dent of QPCC Jef­frey Guillen said Char­lie Davis was not on­ly a proud West In­di­an crick­eter of dis­tinc­tion but al­so one of Queen’s Park Crick­et Club’s finest and most re­spect­ed crick­et­ing icons. His con­tri­bu­tion to the club and to West In­dies and re­gion­al crick­et stands as a bench­mark of ex­cel­lence, ded­i­ca­tion, and pro­fes­sion­al­ism. At the crease and in life, he was a true fight­er—res­olute, dis­ci­plined, and un­yield­ing in char­ac­ter. He pos­sessed im­mense grit, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and class, and he wore the Queen’s Park col­ors with pride and dis­tinc­tion, as he did for Trinidad and To­ba­go and the West In­dies. His per­for­mances for both club and coun­try re­flect­ed a crick­eter of rare qual­i­ty and a com­peti­tor who nev­er gave less than his very best. Be­yond his crick­et­ing achieve­ments, Char­lie was a gen­tle­man in every sense of the word—hum­ble, com­posed, and high­ly re­spect­ed by team­mates, op­po­nents, and the wider crick­et­ing fra­ter­ni­ty. His lega­cy is not on­ly writ­ten in runs and records but al­so in the re­spect he earned and the stan­dards he set.

On be­half of the Queen’s Park fam­i­ly and my own fam­i­ly, I ex­tend our sin­cere con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and loved ones dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. Queen’s Park Crick­et Club will for­ev­er re­mem­ber him as one of its great­est stal­warts, and his pass­ing leaves a deep void in our crick­et­ing fam­i­ly.

Davis was a for­mer West In­di­an crick­eter who played in fif­teen Test match­es be­tween 1968 and 1973 af­ter start­ing his first-class crick­et ca­reer at the age of 17, play­ing for Trinidad and To­ba­go. He came in­to na­tion­al promi­nence in 1960, when as a 16-year-old, he scored 115 for North Trinidad ver­sus South Trinidad.

Dur­ing a pro­duc­tive Shell Shield sea­son in 1968, he was se­lect­ed for the West In­dies.

The high­light of his ca­reer was a home se­ries against In­dia, in which he scored 529 runs in four Tests at the av­er­age of 132.25.

He was al­so a use­ful bowler, tak­ing 63 wick­ets at first-class lev­el.

In 15 Tests, Davis scored 1,301 runs, in­clud­ing four cen­turies and four half-cen­turies. His av­er­age of 54.2 is ranked among on­ly eight West In­di­an bats­men to achieve that land­mark.

The on­ly oth­er re­gion­al bats­men in that il­lus­tri­ous group are George Headley (60.83), Ever­ton Weekes (58.61), Sir Gary Sobers (57.78), Clyde Wal­cott (56.68), Bri­an Lara (52.88), Shiv­nar­ine Chan­der­paul (51.37), and Sir Viv Richards (50.23).

In his First-Class ca­reer (1960-1976) Davis scored 5,538 runs (41.32), in­clud­ing 14 cen­turies, and man­aged 63 wick­ets (39.36) with his medi­um-pac­ers.

ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) and the West In­dies Play­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (WIPA) have paid trib­ute to for­mer West In­dies crick­eter Charles ‘Char­lie’ Davis who passed away on Thurs­day at the age of 82.

In ho­n­our of his life, lega­cy and con­tri­bu­tion to West In­dies crick­et, the West In­dies se­nior men’s Test team wore black arm­bands on day three of the on­go­ing first Test against Sri Lan­ka at the Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um in An­tigua on Sat­ur­day.

Hail­ing from Port-of-Spain, Davis was a sol­id right-hand mid­dle-or­der bats­man who rep­re­sent­ed the re­gion with pride in the late 1960’s and ear­ly 70’s.

In an in­ter­na­tion­al ca­reer that saw him play 15 Tests, he amassed 1,301 runs with four half-cen­turies and four cen­turies, with his maid­en ton com­ing at the his­toric Lord’s Crick­et Ground in his third ap­pear­ance for the West In­dies.

His con­sis­ten­cy at the crease is ev­i­denced by his ca­reer av­er­age of 54.20 with a high score of 183.

In a press re­lease, CWI ex­tend­ed “deep­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of this Caribbean crick­et­ing pi­o­neer and hero.”

WIPA pres­i­dent, Wavell Hinds said the re­gion had lost an out­stand­ing crick­eter.

“The crick­et­ing fra­ter­ni­ty is sad­dened at the pass­ing of Charles Davis. May his soul rest in peace; we ex­tend our con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and friends,” he said in a state­ment.

(CMC)