The UWI Vice-Chancellor’s XI face England ahead of ODI series.
Honours West Indian 'Immortals' Sir Wes Hall, Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Everton Weekes
The UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica. Wednesday, February 13, 2019—In a tradition, now in its 20th year, The University of the West Indies (The UWI) will host a 50-over match which will see a UWI Vice-Chancellor’s XI team face the touring England team on Sunday, February 17, 2019 at the 3Ws Oval, The UWI Cave Hill Campus in Barbados from 11:00 am (Eastern Caribbean time).
Known as the Vice-Chancellor’s XI Cricket Match, the game will serve as a preliminary match ahead of the upcoming West Indies vs England One day international (ODI) Series. This tradition celebrates the historic partnership between the University and the West Indies Cricket Board of Control (now Cricket West Indies) and gives young players on The UWI’s Vice-Chancellor’s XI exposure to international teams.
As part of this year’s event, three West Indians will be recognised: Sir Wes Hall—the tall and powerful right-armed fast-bowler; Sir Everton Weekes—one of the ‘3Ws’, who in many ways changed the landscape of the game with their skills; and Sir Garfield Sobers—regarded as the finest all-rounder in cricket history.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles alluded that, while the match had a healthy custom of honouring cricket legends, the University was especially proud to add this new category in its 20th edition by celebrating those who he coined: “Immortals”. Sirs Wes Hall, Garfield Sobers and Everton Weekes will be the first to be honoured as Vice-Chancellor’s XI Immortals.
According to Sir Hilary, who served as the first project-lead for the Vice-Chancellor’s XI Match twenty years ago, “Legends evolve into Immortals. West Indian Immortals are players whose on-field performance and cultural contributions have made them global icons; whose contributions transcend their own time and positively impact generations; whose identity and consciousness represent the best values of the sport and are inseparable to perceptions of its future; and who are pillars upon which the game has developed and continue to be seen as founders of national and global brands.”
The UWI Vice-Chancellor’s XI Cricket Match is one of many initiatives through which the University seeks to demonstrate its commitment to a strategic focus on regional sport development. The UWI has invested significant resources in infrastructure, created academic sports programmes including its Combined Campuses and Colleges cricket programme, a cricket High Performance Centre (HPC) and most recently, a World Universities’ T20 tournament through its Faculty of Sport to cultivate upcoming, regional cricket talent.
Dean of The UWI Faculty of Sport, Dr Akshai Mansingh noted, “The VC’s XI match has always been a keenly contested game between student cricketers and touring teams. This match being the first since students won the Regional One Day Competition calls for more attention as it showcases some upcoming talent likely to be featured on future West Indies teams. Being held on the Cave Hill Campus’ first class grounds reaffirms the high standards kept by The UWI. Indeed, the Faculty of Sport remains dedicated to the academic progress of our top regional athletes while simultaneously providing world class facilities for their athletic development.
This Sunday’s Vice-Chancellor’s XI Cricket Match is free and open to the public.
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More about The UWI Vice-Chancellor’s Cricket Match
It was the brainchild of the late Sir Frank Worrell; who as a student counsellor and administrator at The UWI’s Mona campus in the mid-1960s, customarily organised matches between touring test teams and combined staff-student teams of The UWI. In so doing, he set a precedent for a noble tradition of engagement between sport and scholarship, which The UWI is proud to continue. The first match was staged at Sabina Park in 1996 against then visiting New Zealanders. This partnership between the University and CWI continues to support the development of The UWI’s cricket programme while paying tribute to former West Indies players who left an indelible mark on the game.
About The UWI
For the past 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and four campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, and an Open Campus. As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Asia, and Africa such as the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development, the UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport.
As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. Times Higher Education has ranked The UWI among the top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018, and was the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.
(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)
