It has taken?nearly three decades, but Lawrence Rowe has finally said sorry to Caribbean people.
On the occasion of the players’ pavilion at Sabina Park being officially named after him yesterday, the former much beloved West Indies middle-order batsman issued this statement:
“It is common knowledge that 28 years ago I led a team of West Indian cricketers on a tour of apartheid South Africa.
“South Africa, at that time, was banned from international cricket because of the apartheid regime that was in force in the country . . . .
“Understandably, the tour offended the people of Jamaica and [those] throughout the cricket-playing countries of the Caribbean.
“Today, I sincerely apologise to the cricket fraternity of the Caribbean and the world.”
Rowe made the statement while facing the media following the renaming ceremony at lunchtime on the opening day of the first Digicel Pearls Test between West Indies and India.
Asked why it had taken so long for such a statement to come, Rowe said: “When this honour was bestowed on me, I felt before I could accept it, it was time to do this.”
Rowe, once an adored figure here, has since become a man who evokes contrasting emotions among Jamaicans because of the two tours to South Africa he undertook in 1983 as captain of that group of West Indians.
He eventually migrated to the United States, where he still lives, because, as he admitted yesterday, “at that time it was basically hostile”.
However, he insisted that his apology was genuine.
“If it was not sincere I would not have done it, so it’s quite sincere,” he said.
Rowe also believed that he had been forgiven by his countrymen.
“All the years I have been coming back here, I have been accepted and I’ve been treated fairly,” he said.
Rowe, now 62, was one of three former West Indies cricketers who had parts of Sabina named after them. Former world Test wicket record-holder Courtney Walsh and fellow fast bowler Michael Holding had the northern and southern ends, respectively, put in their names.
Speaking of his ties to Sabina, Rowe, who averaged 43.55 in 30 Tests with seven centuries, said: “This ground has a lot of great memories for me. In my first Test match here I was fortunate enough to score a double (century) and a single which still stands today, I think.
“I think it’s still a world record and I’ve made all three first-class double hundreds on this ground. Being my home ground, it was a favourite ground of mine as well.”