TT umpire Carlton Best dies

LOCAL and regional cricket umpire Carlton Best was found dead in Aranguez, yesterday. Details of his death are sketchy at this time.

Best, 38, was last seen on Tuesday in Sangre Grande at 8 pm. Family members of Best viewed the body at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope, yesterday. An autopsy is expected to be done today to determine the cause of death.

Best, who wanted to become an International Cricket Council umpire, was moving in the right direction. At the Regional 2017 practical and oral examination, Best placed third among the 35 candidates.

Best was an advocate for respect in the game of cricket. In an interview with Newsday in December 2017, he said, “Not all the time you get respect, but you want to give respect and do a honest game to the best of your ability.

“Not everything will go your way at times but you try your best. You must try to maintain the respect with you respecting the players and the players respecting you.”

Umpire Vicki Daniel said she encouraged Best to get involved in umpiring. Daniel said, “I got him into umpiring because I signed up to do it and at my first day of class I asked him to just come along and keep me company and that is how he got into being an umpire.”

Daniel said Best was on the rise in the profession. “He was excellent at umpiring (and) he was moving up the ladder quickly. This year he did regional games, the Under-19 girls regional games and recently for the Under-17 boys regional games he was appointed as a third umpire. (Yesterday) morning an invite was sent out for him to get training as a TV umpire.”

Daniel said he was a caring man. “He is the type of a person that if you call him he would drop whatever he is doing to lend assistance to somebody else.”