RETIRED Deputy Chief Licensing Officer and popular former Barbados cricketer, Gerry Harding, is dead.

Colleagues and close friends confirmed that Harding, 64, died Thursday morning after losing the battle with colon cancer which had confined him to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for six weeks.

Harding, a former policeman, spent 23 years with the Royal Barbados Police Force before joining the Licensing Authority on April 1, 1984, as a senior testing officer. He also served as Deputy Chief Licensing Officer before retiring in 2003.

Born November 1, 1943, in St Christopher, Christ Church, Harding enlisted in the Police Force on September 17, 1961.

He represented the Police team in the heyday of the Barbados Cricket Association's ten-team Division 1 competition and played throughout the 1960s and 1970s in teams with stalwarts such as Oliver Brome and
Ivor Brathwaite.

Harding, a right-handed batsman and off-spin bowler, made his first class debut for Barbados (two matches) in the 1974-1975 season, playing his first match against the then Combined Islands at Kensington Oval on March 29, 1975, and later against Jamaica at Jarrett Park, MoBay.

He leaves to mourn wife Yvette and two children. His funeral will be held on Saturday. (AB/MK)