Famous Cricketers No 73 - Sonny Ramadhin

Prior Jones and John Trim, even when they were bowling well. Ramadhin ended the series with 14 wickets at an average cost of almost 50 runs each from just over 232 overs. Worse was to befall Ram when the Australians visited the West Indies in 1955. They saw no need to fear him at all on the heavenly batting strips they encountered. The tourists relished the conditions to such an extent that they achieved scores of 515/9 declared, 600/9 declared, 668, and 758/8 declared. Ramadhin suffered grievously, like the vast majority of his colleagues. In four Tests, he could manage only 5/380 (ave 76.00) from 139 overs. The tour to Australia in 1960/61 was Ramadhin’s last. He had not really bowled penetratively since May’s Miracle at Birmingham and many observers thought him fortunate to have been selected at all. He participated in the famous tied Test at Brisbane in December 1960, but, with 2/117 from 32 overs, made only a minor contribution to that result. The Second Test proved to be his last. He was allowed only 5 overs, claimed Ken Mackay’s wicket for 21 runs and was replaced (permanently, as it proved) by Lance Gibbs. The emergence of Gibbs heralded the dawn of a new era. Ramadhin had been the finest of all West Indian spin bowlers for almost a decade. Batsmen who had feared him in the beginning as a mystery bowler grew increasingly comfortable as the aura waned. Even so, he was still a force to be reckoned with, as he showed when playing for Lancashire in the County Championship in 1964 and 1965. In 33 matches for his adopted county, he claimed 97 wickets at 23.37 runs apiece. Ramadhin’s career spanned 15 years and 184 first-class matches. His 758 wickets came at an average cost of 20.24 runs. Only S.G.Smith, among all West Indian bowlers, had taken more than Ramadhin at the time of his retirement. Smith had captured 955 in 211 matches for Trinidad, Northamptonshire and Auckland during 1899-1926. Ramadhin’s place in cricket history is secure. He is still the greatest spin bowler thus far produced by Trinidad & Tobago and ranks second only to Gibbs as the finest slow bowler ever to come out of the Caribbean. At the peak of his career, he was the most feared of all slow bowlers, enjoying a reputation during 1950-54 very similar to that of Australia’s Shane Warne in the early 1990s and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan in more recent times. It is almost mind-boggling to contemplate what Ramadhin would have accomplished had he been part of a more balanced attack. He would not have been bowled into the ground at an early stage of his development and his opponents would not have been able to adjust too readily to an all-spin diet. His record would have been a lot better, too, had his colleagues been more alert in the field. He might also have performed even more brilliantly had he been more intelligently handled by John Goddard, his captain in England in 1950 and 1957 and in Australia in 1951/52. He would certainly have retained his psychological supremacy over English batsmen had the umpires been more flexible in their interpretation of the lbw law as it stood in 1957. Like most West Indian professional cricketers, Ramadhin plied his trade in the northern leagues in England and enjoyed several successful years with Crompton in the Central Lancashire League. He transformed that hitherto feeble club into a serious contender and led it to the championship of its division in 1954 with 135 wickets (ave 6.28). In five summers for this team, Ramadhin took no fewer than 601 wickets (ave 7.53). Significantly, in 1955, the year immediately following its triumph under Ramadhin’s leadership, Crompton finished dead last in the competition when he was absent. In 1957, while Ramadhin was toiling in England on the West Indies’ behalf, Crompton could finish no higher than second last. These facts alone help to illustrate the enormity of his gifts. Turning out for 8