CRICKET LEGEND Sir Wesley Hall says he is humbled by his knighthood.
He made the comment yesterday while delivering the key address at the graduation ceremony of the 2012 class of his alma mater, Combermere School.
He told the gathering at the Waterford, St Michael school that to whom much is given, much is expected.
It was his first official speaking engagement since being made a knight bachelor in the Queen’s Birthday honours list in her Diamond Jubilee year. The announcement was made yesterday that the 74-year-old charismatic figure was honoured for?his sterling contribution to sport and the community.
In the address, he credited the school with playing a key role in his development, along with the people of Station Hill, St Michael, where he was born; as well as the Ivy, St Lawrence and Grazettes, the communities that helped to raise him.
His address was centred on the first line from the school song: Lives Are In The Making Here.
Sir Wesley said the song was not a Monday-to-Friday, three-terms-a-year exercise but something that sent a strong message.
It meant that the students who passed through the institution had been moulded in such a way that they could move on with confidence to higher education and the world of work, he added.
“Your personalities have been so developed at Combermere that they will open doors for you . . . [and] keep those doors open,” he told the students.
Sir Wesley, the holder of 192 Test scalps, was the spearhead of the West Indies pace attack in the 1960s and was the first West Indian to take a hat-trick in Tests.
He subsequently became a Cabinet minister in the 1980s and 1990s under aDemocratic Labour Party administrations. He is also an ordained minister of religion. (LK)
