The Golden Crown of Merit is the fourth highest on Barbados’ list of national honours.
Riley received his award from Dame Sandra Mason during Barbados’ National Awards ceremony held at National Heroes Square in Bridgetown as Barbados celebrates its 54th year of independence.
Riley, who was elected to the board of the BCA in 1996, has been president since 2017.
The retired investment banker is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Enterprise Growth Fund Ltd in Barbados, a Fund established by the Government of Barbados to provide venture capital to Small and Medium Size Enterprises (S&MEs).
In December 2019, he was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s 2020 New Year Honours.
Riley narrowly edged challenger and vice-president Calvin Hope 75-72 in a tightly contested election.
Gregory Nicholls, the third nominee, received 37 votes.
“I’m happy. I’ve been here for a number of years. This is my fourth term. We have a number of youngsters on scholarships overseas doing A levels, O levels as well as playing cricket so I’m happy,” Riley told SportsMax.tv on Friday.
Riley’s main plan while serving his fourth term is to bring a world class indoor facility to Barbados.
“The major thing is the indoor facilities which have thought about building since 2005. We need the money. There’s about $20 million owed by Caribbean Governments to the West Indies so, once we get some of that money, that’s the one I want to complete,” Riley said.
“I want to do it so no matter the weather or time of day, clubs and schools can have indoor facilities to train,” Riley added.
Riley says he hopes to complete this venture in the next two years.
“I’ve already sourced the names and cameras and so on, I want to a very modern indoor facility here, hopefully within the next two years,” Riley said.
According to cricket commentator and talk show host Andrew Mason, the members of the board of the Barbados Cricket Association voted unanimously in favour of Best’s addition to the selection panel.
The 62-year-old Best, played eight Tests and 24 One Day Internationals for the West Indies after making his debut for the West Indies against England in 1986. He is among a handful of batsmen to hit a six to open his account in a Test career.
He did so while facing Ian Botham, who bowled two bouncers at the Barbadian opener, who responded by carting the third ball for six and becoming only the second batsman to do so.
Australia’s Eric Freeman was the first to accomplish the feat.
The matter came to light earlier this week when Barbados Cricket Association President Conde Riley revealed that he had received a letter from the player’s attorney on the Mason and Guest sports talk show.
In May 2021, Cricket West Indies announced the players who had been retained for the next cycle and Dowrich was not among them. Dowrich, 30, last played in a Test for the West Indies from December 2-5, 2020, against New Zealand.
In the early stages of that tour, Dowrich suffered a finger injury but later asked to be released from the tour citing personal reasons. However, according to his lawyer Philip Nichols, after being given leave from the West Indies, CWI then claims that he was not offered a new retainer contract because he had not played the requisite number of games to qualify for the said contract.
This is the bone of contention for the player, who at the time when he left New Zealand, was the first-choice wicketkeeper/batsman for the West Indies.
Dowrich was subsequently replaced by Trinidad and Tobago’s Joshua da Silva, who has, for the most part, acquitted himself well representing the West Indies as its wicketkeeper/batsman.
Following the New Zealand tour, CWI failed to follow up with the player to determine whether he had managed to put his ‘personal issues' behind him and was now ready to return to representing the regional side.
Nichols tells Sportsmax.TV that his client hopes to have the matter resolved amicably as it is not his intention for the matter to end up in court.
Dowrich has played 35 Tests for the West Indies scoring 1507 runs at an average of 29.07. He has scored three hundreds and nine fifties in that time.
