Editorial: Camacho’s fine, but too short innings

Measured by his on-field statistics, Steve Camacho would have been an ordinary cricketer, though no worse than most of the lot who play for the West Indies in the current era. In 11 Test matches, he scored 640 runs and averaged 20.09. In the first-class game, he played 76 matches, hit 4,079 runs and averaged just under 35.

But Steve Camacho's measure is more than his on-field play. He had a profound love for the game, of which he became a competent administrator and served with integrity, including during some of the most difficult periods of West Indies cricket.

Indeed, Mr Camacho, a Guyanese opening batsman, served first as secretary of the WICB before becoming the board's formal CEO. In the former role, as the board's chief administrative officer based in Kingston, he was at President Allan Rae's side when Lawrence Rowe's rebel group of West Indians defected to tour apartheid South Africa in breach of an international boycott of the then white minority-ruled country. He also managed West Indies touring teams.

The game has lost a decent human being and a player whose contribution transcended the runs that came from his bat. May he continue his innings wherever it is that old cricketers go when they die.