Laurie Rohan Williams (12 December 1968 – 8 September 2002) was a

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er. Williams was 33 years old when he died; a car he was driving crashed into an oncoming bus. Williams made his first-class debut for

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

in February 1990 against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, opening the bowling. He bowled medium pacers, concentrating more on seam and swing as opposed to being fast. Also handy with the bat, Williams made three first-class hundreds including a career-best 135 for Jamaica against the

Windward Islands french: Îles du Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Windward Islands. Clockwise: Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean Sea No ...

. That innings helped him to become the second-highest runmaker in the 1999–2000 Busta Cup. Williams played 15

One Day Internationals A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

(ODI) for West Indies, the large bulk of them coming in the 2000–01 Carlton Series in Australia. His best ODI bowling performance was perhaps his three wickets for 16 runs against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in his just his second match. At the time of his death Williams had played 58 first-class matches for West Indies A and Jamaica. He scored 2,002 runs at 24.71 and took 170 wickets at 23.17. His best first-class bowling figures were six wickets for 26 runs, made in 1996–97. He died in a car accident in Kingston on 8 September 2002, aged 33.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Laurie 1968 births 2002 deaths West Indies One Day International cricketers Jamaican cricketers Cricketers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for Jamaica Road incident deaths in Jamaica Jamaica cricketers Sportspeople from Saint Ann Parish