(CRICINFO) – A young British cricketer has died after reportedly being shot during an armed robbery in Trinidad.
Adrian St John, 22, is understood to have died following an incident on Sunday night. Local media reports say that a 24-year-old male has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
St John, who played for Alleyn Cricket Club in south London and for his university squad at the University of Hertfordshire, was captain of ‘The Chris Gayle Academy’ in London, which opened in 2013 to “improve access to good quality education, training and employment for at risk young people in Jamaica and the UK.”
Gayle tweeted: “Such sad news to hear. My condolences to his family & friends. Adrian St John was the captain of the academy. #Sigh.”
Donovan Miller, programme manager for the Chris Gayle Foundation, said: “I’m really finding it hard to come to terms with it, how someone could do something like that to such a lovely person.”
Miller added that St John had been one of the first members of the Chris Gayle Academy in London. “He wanted me to support him to go to the Caribbean,” he said, “and to kind of push hard with his cricket.”
Paul Taylor, head of the Surrey Cricket Foundation, said: “On behalf of Surrey CCC and the Surrey Cricket Foundation I would like to send our condolences to Adrian’s family as well as everyone who knew and played with him at this difficult time. He was clearly a talented cricketer and a very popular guy and everyone at the club was shocked and saddened when we heard this news.”
The Foreign Office confirmed it was in contact with authorities in Trinidad following the death of a UK national.
According to local media reports, the incident occurred after Mr St John had stopped his car to pick up two friends. He was shot as he drove away after the robbery.
