Teams remember Morton despite defeat

BASSETERRE, St Kitts,  CMC – West Indies and New Zealand used Wednesday’s third One-Day International here to honour late Leeward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago batsman Runako Morton.

Players and officials observe a minute’s silence for Runako Morton prior to Wednesday’s ODI. (Photo by Windiescricket)

Players, team and match officials observed a minute’s silence prior to the contest at Warner Park and during the game, West Indies players wore Morton’s ODI number 37 on their jerseys as a mark of respect.

Following the game, members of the Windies tem presented Morton’s widow, Liselle Phillip-Morton, with a cheque for an undisclosed sum of money.

New Zealand allrounder Kyle Mills also handed over his number 37 jersey to Phillip-Morton, who was a guest of West Indies Cricket Board president, Julian Hunte during the game.

Unfortunately, West Indies went down by 88 runs but captain Darren Sammy said his side would try to make amends in the fourth ODI at the weekend.

“We wanted to win for Runako and the people … so we will come back on Saturday and look to get it right and do it for them,” he said.

Morton, who died last March in a vehicular accident in Trinidad, played 15 Tests, 56 ODIs and seven Twenty20 Internationals in a nine-year international career.