“It was a lovely way to be acknowledged for my cricketing career, and to be able to use the night as an avenue to say thank you very, very much to people who’ve been by my side through the great times and the tricky times,” Vincent told The Post. “It was a really memorable, special night with some lovely words spoken.”
“The past is the past,” Vincent said in Auckland. “It was powerful that I had such huge support for the application for the ban to be appealed and there was no opposition from the ECB, they fully respected the work I’d done behind the scenes over the last few years and using my experiences to help educate the next generation of players.”
“The reality is, you can’t forget what he actually did and he would be the first to admit that, but he’s done his penance and no one has done more to fight match-fixing than he has by being so open and telling everything that he knew,” Weenink said. “When the opportunity came, it was really the least we could do to present him with his cap.”
According to Vincent, Hadlee – the former chairman of selectors who had first picked him for New Zealand – was in tears while presenting the cap.
“I was able to say to him ‘Richard, you are New Zealand Cricket, you are the best player we’ve ever had, you’ve achieved so much, and for you to take time out and fly to Auckland to want to present this cap to me is so, so humbling and a reflection of the great man you are,” Vincent said. “And he was in tears. Sir Richard Hadlee in tears!”
“Life moves on, and my life has moved on now. I’ve been blessed with a little son, and I’ve got two daughters who are teenagers,” Vincent said. “To have the opportunity to start a family again and be settled in the far north and have the beach life – a simple life – this is all I’m focused on now.”
