Sonny Ramadhin, who has died on the age of 92, was one of many West Indies’ most interesting spin bowlers and, in tandem with Alf Valentine, customary a sequence win in England in 1950 which turned lodged in calypso folklore.
“They complemented one another completely,” said the late West Indian cricket writer, broadcaster and historian Tony Cozier.
“Ramadhin, cap on, sleeves buttoned down to the wrists, presented mysteries which no English batsman unravelled for the entire summer.”
Sonny Ramadhin, who took 158 wickets in his 43 Tests, was born in St Charles in Trinidad on Mayday 1929.
Just 19, the 5 foot 4 inch (1.62m) off-spinner was chosen for the 1950 tour on the power of two matches for Trinidad towards Jamaica through which he took 12 wickets.
When he travelled to England it was his first journey exterior Trinidad and the primary time he had bowled on grass fairly than matting.
Ramadhin and fellow spinner Valentine stunned 1,000 overs every on the tour, taking 258 wickets between them. In the Tests, the left-arm spinner Valentine, a month older than his spin companion, took 33 wickets to Ramadhin’s 26.
The highly effective West Indies batting line-up which included the three Ws – Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott – did the remainder.
Ramadhin, who had simply turned 20, was primarily an off-spinner however might additionally bowl a leg-break with no discernible change of motion.
He had a bustling run and was unerringly correct – he conceded simply 1.97 runs per over throughout his Test profession.
-‘Those two pals of mine’
He made his debut within the opening Test, changing into the primary of many East Indians to characterize the West Indies.
He took two wickets in every innings as West Indies struggled on an underprepared pitch at Old Trafford, slipping to a heavy defeat. They hit again instantly, within the second Test at Lord’s the place the spin twins grabbed cricketing immortality.
After West indies made 326 of their first innings, Ramadhin took 5 wickets for 66 runs to skittle England for 151.
Set 601 to win, England confirmed better defiance, when Ramadhin bowled Cyril Washbrook for 114, the sport was all however over.
Ramadhin bowled 72 overs within the innings and completed with 6-86 – 11-152 within the match – as West Indies secured a crushing 326-run win.
The West Indian immigrants in London, not too long ago arrived on MV Empire Windrush, celebrated as a lot as the people again dwelling 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 despatched down 81.2 overs within the second innings – Valentine bowled 92 – and took 5-135 as West Indies cantered to a 10-wicket win.
At the Oval he performed second fiddle to Valentine, who took 10 within the match, as West Indies gained by an innings and 56 runs to seal the sequence, though England all-rounder Trevor Bailey remembered it in another way.
“Although Valentine took 10 wickets within the match, for me it was the silent Ramadhin who bought us,” he wrote some years later.
“He was hardly known in the West Indies at the time, less so in England. He was shy and sensitive, considering he was an Indian in a team full of white and black men.
“We had never faced someone like that, bowling from that position and at that pace, who turned the ball on a good wicket.”
Ramadhin continued to prosper till his return to England in 1957 when he bowled 98 overs within the second innings – 129 within the match – as Peter May and Colin Cowdrey padded him away throughout a marathon partnership of 411.
Their techniques of kicking the ball away prompted a change within the lbw regulation however successfully completed Ramadhin. On the 1960-1 tour to Australia Frank Worrell dropped him for the third Test, preferring Lance Gibbs.
Ramadhin by no means performed for the West Indies once more.
Ramadhin joined Lancashire in 1964. He was the county’s oldest surviving former participant on the time of his demise.
His son-in-law Willie Hogg and grandson Kyle Hogg each performed for the county.
“Sad day – nice innings grandad,” Kyle Hogg tweeted.
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