****Remembering Richard DeSouza****

Richard De Souza was hailed as “one of the most technically sound cricketers.” His former teammate and West Indies cricketer, Richard Gabriel, said that De Souza had “……excellent technique. He was a very good middle-order batsman and one of the game’s best on-drivers. This was one of his hallmarks, with his head always directly positioned over the ball.”
Gabriel lamented the fact that De Souza never made the regional test team, citing weight problems as a major factor. “He was a good captain and he also played table tennis but he had a hard trial with his physique.”
De Souza made his national senior team debut in 1965, playing against the touring Australians at the Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad and Tobago, on March 20^th – 24^th. He scored a useful 32 in the first innings with the match ending in a draw.
His omission from the West Indies team always mystified people because in spite of his healthy averages at the regional level he never gained selection on the regional side. Some people believed that, because of the talented Alvin Kallicharan’s occupation of the middle order, De Souza’s chance became very slim.