London, United Kingdom – November 2, 2026: The Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), the leading global private-sector sustainability platform first established by His Majesty King Charles III in 2020 during his tenure as the Prince of Wales, has officially named iconic West Indies cricket captain and Antiguan sporting hero Sir Vivian “Viv” Richards as one of its high-profile Ambassadors, honoring his longstanding dedication to leveraging sport as a force for building a more environmentally and socially sustainable future.
The SMI’s prestigious Ambassador Program curates a cohort of renowned cross-sector global leaders who act as high-level representatives, narrative champions, and on-the-ground advocates for the organization’s two foundational guiding frameworks: the Terra Carta, focused on uniting private industry for nature-positive, net-zero outcomes, and the Astra Carta, which advances sustainable space innovation for planetary good. Working in close partnership with the SMI’s founder and its global community of over 400 top CEOs, these Ambassadors are tasked with educating mass audiences, sparking collective inspiration, and driving widespread public and private engagement to speed up the global shift to equitable, sustainable systems across all sectors.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen to ever compete in international cricket, Sir Vivian Richards made his Test match debut for the West Indies in 1974, going on to accumulate 8,540 runs across 121 Test appearances, including 24 centuries. Over his 50-match tenure as West Indies captain, he led the side to 27 victories. His 1976 milestone of 1,710 Test runs in a single calendar year remained unbroken for 30 years, while his 56-ball Test century against England on his home turf of Antigua in 1986 stood as the fastest in the sport’s history for years. In 1999, the Antiguan government awarded him a knighthood in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to sport and national community.
Already serving as a designated Envoy for the 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Sir Vivian joins the SMI on the eve of the four-day 2026 CHOGM gathering, where he will lead a team as captain in the high-profile “One Commonwealth, One Team” Exhibition Cricket Match hosted in Antigua and Barbuda.
Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, shared her enthusiasm for the appointment: “It is a profound privilege to welcome Sir Viv Richards as a Sustainable Markets Initiative Ambassador. Very few public figures command the level of cross-cultural, cross-generational respect he holds across global sport and grassroots communities worldwide, and his legacy stretches far beyond the cricket pitch – he has spent decades embodying bold leadership, radical cross-community unity, and the tangible power of sport to galvanize millions for positive, lasting change. Sir Viv’s unparalleled voice and far-reaching influence will be instrumental in accelerating the sustainable transition across the entire global sporting ecosystem, across the Commonwealth nations and far beyond.”
With a global fanbase of more than four billion people, the global sporting industry holds a uniquely unmatched capacity to shift public behavior at scale and mobilize mass populations around shared collective goals. As the private sector’s leading CEO-focused platform for advancing the global sustainable transition, the SMI brings together critical stakeholders spanning every corner of the global sporting ecosystem, bridging cutting-edge innovation, peer-reviewed science, sustainable finance, and cross-sector expertise to speed up private industry progress on sustainability targets across the entire sports value chain, under the umbrella of the SMI’s dedicated Sport Pathfinder initiative.
Cricket legend Sir Vivian Richards appointed as Ambassador of His Majesty King Charles III’s Sustainable Markets Initiative
