Best nominated for Carib Icon Award
Bermuda football legend Clyde Best will battle it out with ex-Manchester United star Dwight Yorke for a top award at the 2nd Annual Caribbean Awards Sports Icons (CASI) banquet.
The event, to be staged in the Bahamas in November, seeks to highlight the Caribbean's top athletes in the region's more popular sports such as football, cricket and track and field.
Former West Ham striker Best will be up against Yorke, Leroy (Uncle Lee) Archer from the Bahamas and ex-Jamaica international Theodore Whitmore for the prestigious accolade.
"It's an honour to be remembered let alone nominated for an award after all this time," said Best. "Obviously I'm in good company if Dwight Yorke has also been nominated.
"The thing about the Caribbean is they never forget people who achieve in sport. Whenever I go to Barbados, people are still talking about Everton Weekes, Sir Garfield Sobers and Clyde Walcott."
The nominees in cricket, as chosen by a regional panel of sports writers, include Sir Everton Weekes from Barbados, Sir Vivian Richards from Antigua and Barbuda, Brian Lara from Trinidad and Tobago, Clive Lloyd (CBE) from Guyana and Michael Holding from Jamaica.
The male athletes in track and field nominated include Javier Sotomayer from Cuba, Lennox Miller from Jamaica, Troy Kemp from the Bahamas, Wendell Motley and Haseley Crawford from Trinidad and Tobago, and Donald Quarrie, Usain Bolt and George Rhoden all from Jamaica.
In female athletics, the nominees are Tonique Williams-Darling and Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie from the Bahamas, Merlene Ottey, Bridgette Foster-Hylton and Shelly-Ann Fraser from Jamaica, and Ana Fedelia Quirot from Cuba.
In basketball, the winner for the 2009 CASI award will be chosen from Mychal Thompson and Rick Fox from the Bahamas, Patrick Ewing from Jamaica, Olden Polynice from Haiti and Tim Duncan from the US Virgin Islands.
Emile Griffith from the US Virgin Islands, Elisha Obed from the Bahamas, Tefelio Stevenson from Cuba, Andrew Lewis from Guyana, and Leslie Stewart and Claude Noel from Trinidad and Tobago are the nominees for boxing, and in the administrator/coach category, Gloria Ballentine from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Mike Fennell from Jamaica, Anton Sealey from the Bahamas, Kathy Harper-Hall from Barbados and Richard Peterkin from St. Lucia are the nominees.
Last year's winners in Jamaica were Sir Gary Sobers from Barbados in cricket, Cuban Alberto Juantorena in male athletics, Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown in female athletics, Jamaican Lloyd Lindbergh (Lindy) Delapenha in football, Jennifer Frank from Trinidad and Tobago in netball, Jamaican Mike McCallum in boxing and Jack Warner from Trinidad and Tobago in administration/coaching.