Richard Arkwright Austin (5 September 1954 – 7 February 2015) was an international

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er from

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

, who played two

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and one

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

for the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. Born in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

, Austin was a multi-talented sportsman, being "a footballer and table tennis player of note" on top of his cricketing skills. He represented the Jamaica Under-19s before making his

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

debut for

on 21 March 1975 against

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

at Jarrett Park,

Montego Bay Montego Bay () is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth most populous urban area in the country, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Portmore ...

, making 0 and 74 and taking three wickets for 34 runs (3/34). Austin made his

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the num ...

debut for Jamaica on 22 February 1976 against

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

Kensington Oval The Kensington Oval is a stadium located in the western part of Bridgetown, Barbados. It is the pre-eminent sporting facility on the island and is primarily used for cricket. It has hosted many important cricket games between local, regional, ...

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the Parishes of Barbados, parish of Saint Michael, Barbados, Saint Mic ...

, opening the batting and scoring three, and taking 0/7 from two overs. Some good form by Austin saw him come into contention for a place in the strong West Indies Test side. He also accepted an offer in 1977 to join

World Series Cricket World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to established ...

, a private cricket competition run by

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

. In March 1978, when an

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side – minus its WSC players – toured the West Indies, Austin was included in the squad for the first two Tests of the series. He was originally chosen for the third Test at Bourda Cricket Ground, but the WICB excluded him from the side, along with

Desmond Haynes Desmond Leo Haynes (born 15 February 1956) is a former Barbadian cricketer and cricket coach who played for the West Indies cricket team between 1978 and 1994. He was a member of the squads which won the 1979 Cricket World Cup as well as finis ...

and

Deryck Murray Deryck Lance Murray (born 20 May 1943) is a former West Indies cricketer. A wicketkeeper and right-handed batsman, Murray kept wicket to the West Indian fast bowling attacks of the 1970s (including Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner a ...

because of World series connections. This led to skipper

Clive Lloyd Sir Clive Hubert Lloyd (born 31 August 1944) is a Guyanese- British former cricketer and captain of the West Indies cricket team. Lloyd is widely regarded as one of the greatest captains of all time. As a boy he went to Chatham High School in ...

, and the other WSC players in the West Indian side refusing to play in the Test in protest. Following his WSC stint from 1977 to 1979, Austin believed that he would not make the West Indian side again, and so joined the Rebel West Indies team that twice toured South Africa – during

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

– in 1982 and 1984, under the leadership of

Lawrence Rowe Lawrence George Rowe (born 8 January 1949) is a former West Indian cricketer. A stylish top order batsman, he also played for Jamaica and Derbyshire in his cricketing career. Rowe was later named as one of Jamaica's top five cricketers of the 2 ...

. Rowe apologised on 20 June 2011, to the cricketing fraternity of Jamaica, the Caribbean and the rest of the world on behalf of that ill-fated team. This led to the ostracism of almost all members of that squad by the people of the Caribbean countries, and for some this was very severe. A number found it difficult to deal with, particularly those who could not easily leave their Caribbean communities, and the lives of a few of the players completely disintegrated when they found alternative work difficult to obtain. This was particularly the case with Austin, and following his retirement from cricket, he became reliant on alcohol and drugs to help him deal with the issue, and ultimately became homeless. He died aged 60. His death was announced on 7 February 2015. Austin also played in the Lancashire League for Church Cricket Club in 1978 and

Enfield Cricket Club Enfield Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Lancashire League (not to be confused with the club of the same name in Middlesex), which plays its home games at Dill Hall Lane in Accrington. The club has won the league on 5 occasions and the cup ...

in 1982.

References

Sources

* Robinson, R. (1979) ''The Wildest Tests'', Cassell Australia: Sydney. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Richard 1954 births 2015 deaths Cricketers from Kingston, Jamaica Jamaican cricketers 20th-century Jamaican sportsmen Jamaican men's footballers World Series Cricket players West Indies One Day International cricketers West Indies Test cricketers West Indian cricketers of 1970–71 to 1999–2000 Jamaica cricketers Men's association football players not categorized by position