Barrett, Taylor, Lambert named as Courtney Walsh Award nominees
Published:Friday | October 7, 2016 | 12:00 AM
West Indies female cricket star Stafanie Taylor; former Jamaica cricket captain, Tamar Lambert; and former Jamaican goalkeeper, Warren Barrett are the three names shortlisted for this year's Courtney Walsh Award for excellence, which is set for Thursday, October 13, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel.
Taylor became the first West Indian to win the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women's Cricketer of the Year in 2011. Her outstanding achievements enabled her to win the One-Day International Cricketer of the Year a year later. She then completed a sweep of all ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year awards when she won the T20 Cricketer of the Year in 2015.
A right-handed batsman who bowls off spin, Taylor is the only cricketer, male or female, to top both the ICC batting and bowling rankings in ODI cricket. She became the first Jamaican to lead the West Indies women cricketers to a global championship at the ICC World Cup T20 tournament in India.
Cricketer Tamar Lambert has represented Jamaica at every level. To this day, he remains Jamaica's most successful cricket captain ever. An all-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm offspin, Lambert's greatest successes came while leading Jamaica's senior cricket team from 2008-2012.
He led Jamaica to an unprecedented five consecutive triumphs in the regional four-day championship. Lambert also led Jamaica to two regional Super50 titles, in 2007 and 2011, plus two play-off shields.
The other nominee is Warren Barrett, a retired national goalkeeper and current national goalkeeping coach. Barrett made his debut for the Jamaica national football team in 1990 against Barbados and played his final international in 2000 against Honduras in the Gold Cup.
He was Jamaica's main man in goal when the Reggae Boyz qualified for France '98. He was the goalkeeping coach of the Jamaican squad that finished as runners-up in the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The criteria on which the nominees will be considered to receive this award are: a history of outstanding achievement in their chosen sport; a spirit of sportsmanship and goodwill reflected by truthfulness, courtesy, and respect when dealing with other players/competitors and administrators; strong national pride; appropriate leadership skills; appropriate deportment; high level of discipline and integrity both inside and outside of the sports; as well as humility even in the face of victory.