Roy Clifton Fredericks

People always assumed Roy Fredericks was shorter than he was. Something about the way he moved — compact, coiled, completely at ease — made him seem smaller than his five feet eight inches. He did not correct them. He had a way of letting people underestimate him, and then making them regret it at exactly the right moment.

The world called him Freddo. He called everyone "old chap" — prime ministers, opponents, teammates, strangers on the road. There was a warmth in that, a refusal to be overawed by anyone or anything, a man entirely comfortable in his own skin wherever he stood.

He grew up in Blairmont on the East Bank of Berbice, in what was then British Guiana. Cricket took him to Perth and Lord's and Kingston and Cardiff and every great ground in between. But Guyana was always home.

Roy Fredericks played Test cricket for the West Indies from 1968 to 1977, amassing 4,334 runs in 59 Tests. He was part of the squad that won the inaugural 1975 Cricket World Cup. He was not a batsman who survived. He was a batsman who attacked. The harder they banged the ball in, the harder he cut and hooked. Against the most feared pace bowlers on the planet — Lillee, Thomson, Snow — he did not retreat. He walked towards them.

The innings that defined him came on a scorching afternoon at the WACA in Perth in 1975. Australia had Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson at full pace on the fastest pitch in the world. No West Indian batsman wanted to face them. Fredericks opened the batting. He reached his century off just 71 balls — the second quickest of the era — and went on to score a match-winning 169. The Australian fielders applauded him off the field. That innings is still regarded as one of the finest ever played in Test cricket.

At the 1975 World Cup final at Lord's, Fredericks hooked Dennis Lillee so cleanly that the ball soared over long leg, cleared the boundary, and landed on St John's Wood Road outside the ground. He was given out hit wicket — he had trodden on his stumps in the full flourish of the shot. Even in dismissal, it was breathtaking. That was Freddo. He went for the shot anyway. He always did.

He inspired Brian Lara. Alongside Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge, Fredericks was one of Lara's childhood idols. He averaged a staggering 63.83 for his home team Guyana — because when he played for Guyana, he played like a man who wanted to make his country proud every single time.