Saint Lucia cricket mourns Choiseul spinner Alvinaus 'Mushy' Simon

Saint Lucia's cricket community is in mourning after the sudden death of Alvinaus 'Mushy' Simon, the Choiseul off-spinner and middle-order batsman who died in his sleep on Friday morning. As reported by St. Lucia Times, he passed away just a month short of his 33rd birthday, leaving a void in the part of the island where cricket in St Lucia burns most fiercely.

Simon was a familiar figure in local cricket for more than a decade. He represented his home community of Choiseul in both the Prime Minister's Cup and the Saint Lucia Premier League, and this year he helped his teams reach the finals of both competitions, a double that underlined how highly he was valued in the southern village.

Cricket Saint Lucia paid tribute to him on its official social media pages, remembering a man who was 'quiet and unassuming' and who 'allowed his cricket to speak for him'. It is a description that colleagues and opponents across the island will recognise: a cricketer who preferred his off-spin and his middle-order runs to do the talking.

Born in Balca, Choiseul, Simon was a former student of Piaye Secondary School and a member of the school's Class of 2010. His talent showed early. He went on to represent Saint Lucia at Under-15 and Under-19 level, part of a generation of young players who came through the island's age-group system before settling into senior domestic competition.

Away from the pitch, Simon worked as a Business Development Officer at the Ministry of Commerce, a role that connected him to the wider workings of the economy of Saint Lucia and to the island's commercial and investment community. He was, by every account, a fixture of two worlds: the public service by week, the cricket field at weekends.

His death resonates beyond one village because cricket remains the island's great shared passion. The island's best-known sporting son is Daren Sammy, born in 1983 and raised in the south east, who became the first Saint Lucian to play international cricket for the West Indies and captained the side to ICC World Twenty20 titles in 2012 and 2016. The Saint Lucia Kings carry that same passion into the Caribbean Premier League, playing their home games at the Daren Sammy ground, and the domestic Premier League feeds talent towards those heights. Sport in Saint Lucia, whether at Test level or village level, runs on people like Simon.

Choiseul, the village Simon called home, is known as the Cradle of Craft, a community of farmers, fishermen and craft-makers on the island's south west coast. It has a strong sporting tradition, and its own team, the Choiseul Craft Masters, sponsored by the Choiseul Co-operative Credit Union, won the Saint Lucia Premier League tournament last year. Visitors who go beyond the beaches in St Lucia and explore the south often find that the village's warmth comes from exactly this mix: people who work elsewhere on the island but return to play for their community.

For travellers, the news is a reminder of how tightly cricket is woven into everyday life here. A match on a village ground can be one of the most rewarding things to do in St Lucia, and Choiseul is among the places where visitors are welcomed into that world. Eating in the village means simple, fresh local cooking, fish landed that morning, ground provisions, bakes and fruit from nearby farms, an everyday taste of the food and rum in St Lucia that guidebooks try to describe.

Choiseul's culture runs deep in other ways too. Kwéyòl is widely spoken in the village, and the culture and traditions of Saint Lucia are on full show during Creole Heritage Month each October, when communities across the area hold music, dance and community events. Timing a trip around those gatherings is one way of answering the familiar question of the best time to visit St Lucia, and travellers who plan holidays to St Lucia around village life often come away with a richer sense of the island than those who never leave their resort.

The village also offers its own places to stay, from private villas in St Lucia to smaller guest properties and Airbnb rooms, and many Choiseulians work in the island's hospitality sector. That community-run approach to tourism, where visitors meet the people who live and farm and fish here, suits travellers who prefer their hotels in St Lucia to feel connected to a neighbourhood rather than a compound.

For now, though, the tributes are what matter. A man a month from his 33rd birthday, who played in two finals this year, who served his ministry and his community, and who let his cricket speak for him, has gone far too soon. Cricket Saint Lucia's tribute captured the mood across the island, from the Daren Sammy ground to the grounds of Choiseul, where his teammates will take the field next with heavy hearts.

Details of any memorial or tribute match have not yet been announced. When they are, the response from the cricketing fraternity is unlikely to be quiet or unassuming, because that was never how Simon's cricket spoke.