Empire Cricket Club is a cricket club in Barbados

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

. The club plays in Barbados Cricket Association

Barbados Cricket Association

The Barbados Cricket Association is the ruling body for cricket in Barbados. The BCA was sstablished in 1933 by an Act of Parliament to replace the Barbados Cricket Challenge Cup Committee, which had administered Barbadian cricket since its formation in 1892...

 Division 1 championship. The club was formed on 24 May 1914—Empire Day—from which it took its name. The club was formed by disaffected members of Spartan Cricket Club

Spartan Cricket Club

Spartan Cricket Club is a cricket club in Barbados. The club plays in the Barbados Cricket Association Division 1 championship.Spartan was formed in 1893 as a club for middle-class black and creole cricketers who were denied entry into all-white cricket clubs such as Wanderers and Pickwick...

. The founders of the club left Spartan after it had refused membership to the Barbadian cricketer Herman Griffith

Herman Griffith

Herman Clarence Griffith was a West Indian cricketer who played in West Indies' first Test match in their inaugural Test tour of England and was one of the leading bowlers on that tour....

 in 1913 on the grounds of his low social class

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

.

The club is one of the most famous in Barbados and has been described as "the greatest club ever".

Former players include three cricketing knights:

• Sir Conrad Hunte
  Conrad Hunte
  Sir Conrad Cleophas Hunte, KA was a Barbadian cricketer. Hunte played 44 Test matches as an opening batsman for the West Indies.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Sir Everton Weekes
  Everton Weekes
  Sir Everton DeCourcy Weekes, KCMG, GCM, OBE is a leading former West Indian cricketer. Along with Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott, he formed what was known as "The Three Ws" of West Indian cricket.-Youth and early career:...
  
  
• Sir Frank Worrell
  Frank Worrell
  Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell is sometimes referred to by his nickname of Tae and was a West Indies cricketer and Jamaican senator...
  
  , whose boyhood home overlooks the club ground.