NEWS
Follow UsFormer West Indies spinner Sonny Ramadhin, who could turn the ball both ways, passed away at age of 92. Ramadhin, the first East Indian to represent West Indies, scalped 158 wickets in 43 Tests at an average of 28.98.
Ramadhin was primarily an offspinner but could also bowl a leg-break with no discernible change of action. He had a bustling run and was unerringly accurate – he conceded just 1.97 runs per over during his Test career.
"On behalf of CWI I want to express our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Sonny Ramadhin, one of the great pioneers of West Indies cricket. Mr Ramadhin made an impact from the moment he first stepped onto the field of World Cricket. Many stories are told of his tremendous feats on the 1950 tour when he combined with Alf Valentine to form cricket's 'spin twins' as West Indies conquered England away from home for the first time,"CWI President Ricky Skerritt said on Sunday (February 27).
"This iconic tour is part of our rich cricket legacy, which was pioneered by Mr. Ramadhin and others of his generation. His English exploit was celebrated in a famous calypso - and is still remembered more than 70 years later. Today we salute Sonny Ramadhin for his outstanding contribution to West Indies cricket."
At the age of 19, he was selected for the 1950 tour of England on the strength of two matches for Trinidad against Jamaica in which he took 12 wickets. When he travelled to England it was his first trip outside Trinidad and the first time he had bowled on grass rather than matting.
He took two wickets in each innings as West Indies struggled on an underprepared pitch at Old Trafford, slipping to a heavy defeat. They hit back immediately, in the second Test at Lord's where the spin twins (him and Alf Valentine) grabbed cricketing immortality.
After West indies made 326 in their first innings, Ramadhin took 5 wickets for 66 runs to skittle England for 151. Set 601 to win, England showed greater defiance, when Ramadhin bowled Cyril Washbrook for 114, the game was all but over. Ramadhin bowled 72 overs in the innings and finished with 6/86 – 11/152 in the match – as West Indies secured a crushing 326-run win.
The West Indian immigrants in London, recently arrived on MV Empire Windrush, celebrated as much as the folk back home with the calypso musician Lord Kitchener writing "Victory Calypso", honouring "those two little pals of mine/Ramadhin and Valentine".
In the third Test at Nottingham, Ramadhin sent down 81.2 overs in the second innings – Valentine bowled 92 – and took 5/135 as West Indies cantered to a 10-wicket win. At the Oval he played second fiddle to Valentine, who took 10 in the match, as West Indies won by an innings and 56 runs to seal the series, although England all-rounder Trevor Bailey remembered it differently.
Ramadhin continued to prosper until his return to England in 1957 when he bowled 98 overs in the second innings – 129 in the match – as Peter May and Colin Cowdrey padded him away during a marathon partnership of 411.
Their tactics of kicking the ball away prompted a change in the lbw law but effectively finished Ramadhin. On the 1960-61 tour to Australia Frank Worrell dropped him for the third Test, preferring Lance Gibbs.
Ramadhin never played for the West Indies again. Ramadhin joined Lancashire in 1964. He was the county's oldest surviving former player at the time of his death.
(With inputs from AFP)
