"Bird" to be honoured during Caribbean Week

Source: Trinidad Guardian

BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos - For­mer West In­dies fast bowler, Joel Gar­ner will be ho­n­oured dur­ing Caribbean Week, which will be host­ed by the Caribbean Tourism Or­gan­i­sa­tion (CTO) from June 16 to 21 in the Unit­ed States.

Ac­cord­ing to a CTO me­dia re­lease, the 71-year-old, af­fec­tion­ate­ly known to friends and as­so­ciates as "Big Bird" (or sim­ply, "Bird") will join the line-up of del­e­gates head­ing to the event in New York City.

Gar­ner will par­tic­i­pate in a crick­et cer­e­mo­ny and watch par­ty on Mon­day, June 17, at the Caribbean-owned and op­er­at­ed S'Aimer NYC restau­rant dur­ing an event sup­port­ed by Bar­ba­dos Tourism Mar­ket­ing Inc.

He will be hon­ored for his con­tri­bu­tion to the sport and tourism de­vel­op­ment dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny, which will be at­tend­ed by Cay­man Is­lands min­is­ter of tourism and ports, and CTO chair­man, Ken­neth Bryan, and Bar­ba­dos min­is­ter of tourism and in­ter­na­tion­al trans­port, Ian Good­ing-Edghill.

"It's im­por­tant that we recog­nise the sig­nif­i­cance of crick­et and sports in tourism de­vel­op­ment, and es­pe­cial­ly im­por­tant that we ho­n­our our leg­ends," Cay­man Is­lands di­rec­tor of tourism and CTO di­rec­tor, Rosa Har­ris said. "Their con­tri­bu­tions have been in­valu­able in pro­mot­ing our re­gion."

Stand­ing 6 feet, 8 inch­es tall, Gar­ner was a for­mi­da­ble pres­ence for bats­men in the 1970s and 1980s, renowned for his blis­ter­ing pace, tow­er­ing bounce, and dev­as­tat­ing york­ers that of­ten sent stumps fly­ing.

He end­ed his in­ter­na­tion­al ca­reer with 259 wick­ets at 20.97 apiece in 58 Tests and 146 scalps at 18.84 each in 98 One-day In­ter­na­tion­als.

He played his fi­nal Test in 1987, and he was the last of the West In­dies pace at­tack - once dubbed "The Four Horse­men of Apoc­a­lypse" - that com­prised Sir Andy Roberts, Michael Hold­ing and Col­in Croft, to re­tire.