Julian Charles (cricketer)

Julian Desmond Charles (born 3 May 1961) is a former Saint Lucian cricketer who played for the Windward Islands in West Indian domestic cricket. He was the first Saint Lucian to score a first-class hundred.

A right-handed middle-order batsman and occasional leg spin bowler, Charles made his first-class debut for the Windwards during the 1982–83 Shell Shield season.[1] He scored his maiden first-class century during the 1985–86 season (114 against Guyana),[2] having earlier spent the 1985 English season playing for Cornwall in the Minor Counties Championship.[3] At the beginning of the 1986–87 season, Charles was selected to tour Zimbabwe with a "West Indies B" team, playing both first-class and limited-overs fixtures. In a three-day match against the Zimbabwe Cricket Union President's XI, he made what was to be his highest first-class score, 185 runs from third in the batting order.[4] Charles continued playing for the Windwards up until the 1991–92 season, but passed fifty only three times in his last five seasons.[5]

Since the conclusion of his playing career, he has filled several administrative roles, including serving as both a director and chairman of selectors of the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control, and as a director of the West Indies Cricket Board.[6] He was elected President of the Saint Lucia National Cricket Association in 2009, and was re-elected in 2011, 2013, and 2015.

In February 2020, he was named in the West Indies' squad for the Over-50s Cricket World Cup in South Africa.[7][8] However, the tournament was cancelled during the third round of matches due to the coronavirus pandemic.[9]