New Year’s Honours: West Indies star Clive Lloyd knighted
- Published
Clive Lloyd converts his CBE into a knighthood
Clive Lloyd, whose West Indies side dominated international cricket, has been knighted in the New Year Honours.
The Guyana-born batsman, now 75, has been honoured for his service to the game.
He captained the West Indies from 1974 until 1985 and played for Lancashire from 1968 until 1986, later settling in the Greater Manchester area.
Since retiring, he has coached West Indies and worked for the International Cricket Council.
The left-handed middle-order batsman made his Test debut aged 22 against India and scored 7,515 runs at an average of more than 46 in 110 appearances.
His former Lancashire team-mate Farokh Engineer, who also played for India, said the honour was "well overdue because a lot of his colleagues were knighted, so I am so glad".
"He's a great guy, he's a character and we complemented each other and we contributed to Lancashire's success," said Engineer, who now works as a cricket pundit.
Sir Clive Lloyd and Farokh Engineer carried out the Cricket World Cup trophy at the Old Trafford cricket ground during the 2019 tournament
"I am delighted, he's been my best friend. We played against each other, we enjoyed our cricket.
"We were the two overseas professionals at Lancashire - he was raw from Guyana and I was raw from India so we had to prove ourselves."
Lloyd's West Indies side went 26 matches without defeat and thrashed England 5-0 in what became known as the 1984 "Blackwash" series.
He also led the West Indies to victory in the first cricket World Cup in 1975 scoring 102 at Lord's against an Australia side with feared bowlers Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson spearheading their pace attack.
Lloyd became a folk hero in Lancashire as a key player in the 1970s side that became known as the "Kings of One Day Cricket".
A true statesman - Jonathan Agnew, BBC cricket correspondent
Clive Lloyd is one of cricket's true statesmen.
He is obviously best known for his role in bringing the West Indies team together in a very factional part of the world.
He got them playing as a team unit, fiercely proud of their region, who were feared and respected.
Yet at the same time he has been an absolute star for Lancashire.
My early cricketing years were spent marvelling at this incredibly athletic, graceful, loose-limbed left-handed batsman who could smash the ball all over the place.
He was the first prowler in the covers; a beautiful mover who could pick the ball up with one hand and throw it at the stumps.
He is cricket through and through.
The same crowds who cheered Best, Law and Charlton at Manchester United in the winter brought football-style chants to cricket when Lloyd batted at the other Old Trafford in the summer.
The team won three successive Gillette Cup finals and two successive Sunday league titles with Lloyd scoring a memorable 126 in the 1972 Gillette final against Warwickshire.
Ex-Lancashire player John Abrahams, who captained the county in the 1980s, said: "I made my debut in 1973 and Lancashire were a team of stars. Clive was very good to me taking me under his wing in a very informal way.
"As a batsman he changed the face of the game - there was a real buzz around the ground when he came into bat.
"He hit shots the rest of us could only dream of playing."
Clive Lloyd won the World Cup trophy twice as a player