Famous Cricketers No 73 - Sonny Ramadhin

1955 - Commonwealth XI in England Once again Ramadhin participated in the Hastings Festival. For a change, neither he nor his side did well. England defeated the Commonwealth by 56 runs and Ramadhin was held to 2 wickets for 59 runs. The match featured some very fine batting from Donald Carr (131 & 52) and Colin Cowdrey (24 & 71). After his first innings at Hastings, for the first time in his career, his aggregate runs exceeded his aggregate wickets. This summer Ramadhin also took part in the Torquay Festival, in which the Commonwealth won a close encounter. Ramadhin’s role was relatively minor as the proceedings were dominated by Roy Marshall (72 & 47) and Frank Worrell (100 & 48). Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 86. Commonwealth XI v An England XI, Hastings, September 3, 5, 6 (An England XI won by 56 runs) c D.B.Carr b D.C.Morgan 16 272 14 1 59 2 D.B.Carr b 329 J.B.Statham b not out 11 256 - - - - 255-7d 87. Commonwealth XI v An England XI, Torquay, September 7, 8, 9 (Commonwealth XI won by 3 runs) c G.M.Emmett b G.A.R.Lock 5 361 32 6 92 2 M.Tompkin b 382-8d P.J.Loader st B.A.Barnett c R.Tattersall b C.Gladwin 16 328-9d 13 1 43 2 M.Tompkin c L.Livingston 304 C. Gladwin c B.A. Barnett SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Other matches 2 4 1 48 16 16.00 - - - Career 87 83 31 415 27* 7.98 - - 24 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Other matches (6 ball) 59 8 194 6 2-43 32.33 - - Career (6 ball) 3414.2 1214 } 7915 384 8-15 20.61 25 8 (8 ball) 324.4 76 1955/56 - West Indians in New Zealand Early in 1956, Ramadhin accompanied the West Indians on their first extended tour of New Zealand. The tourists proved too strong for the hosts and won the Test series 3-1. New Zealand, however, had cause to celebrate also. When they defeated the West Indies at Auckland in March, it was their first Test victory in 26 years and 45 attempts. The West Indians won 6 of their 8 first-class matches, thanks mainly to the brilliance of Everton Weekes with the bat and Ramadhin with the ball. The latter captured more wickets (40) than any of his colleagues and also shone in the Tests. This brought to 64 the number of first-class wickets he captured in New Zealand, a record not yet equalled by another West Indian. At Dunedin, in February, his 6/23 was largely responsible for the dramatic New Zealand collapse in their first innings. In all, Ramadhin took 20 Test wickets at less than 16 runs apiece. This moved his tally to 113, just seven short of the West Indian record of 120 then held by Alfred Valentine and allowed his career Test average to drop again below 30 runs per wicket. His 100th Test victim was Gordon Leggat, whom he trapped lbw at Dunedin in the second innings of his 25th Test. It was in that same game that he took his 400th wicket in first-class cricket. The steady improvement in Ramadhin’s batting was reflected by the fact that he averaged 19 in the Tests and 16.87 runs per innings in all first-class matches. The defiant 44 he struck against New Zealand at Dunedin in February was then his highest score. It was destined to remain his best innings in first-class cricket. On that occasion, he shared an excellent eighth wicket partnership of 75 runs with John Goddard (48). This stood as a West Indian record against New Zealand until Viv Richards and Malcolm Marshall added 83 for the eighth wicket at Bridgetown in April/May 1985. 24