Praise for Ramdin’s first Test century
March 2nd 2009

Several former Test cricketers and administrators have hailed the maiden Test century (166) made by T&T and West Indies wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin on Sunday, during the fourth Digicel Test match against England at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.

Ramdin scored a patient 166 and shared in a record-breaking sixth wicket partnership of 261 with Ramnaresh Sarwan who made a brilliant 291. Sarwan passed his previous highest score of 261 against Bangladesh five years ago at Sabina Park in Jamaica, when he drove a full toss from Owais Shah, bowling his modest off-spin, through cover for a deuce.

However, the loudest cheers around the ground were reserved for Ramdin. He has promised much, but delivered very little with the bat in his previous 32 Tests.

Benefitting from Sarwan’s wise counsel and the docile pitch, he batted astutely and never seemed fazed when he entered the 90s.

The historic moment arrived, when he glanced Ryan Sidebottom to deep fine leg for a single to reach triple-figures for the first time in a Test.

In celebrating his landmark, Ramdin displayed three names from a piece of paper which he took out from his pocket.

It was later revealed that two of the names were pacer Ian Bishop and wicketkeeper David Williams, whom he thanked for helping and guiding him throughout his regional and international career.

Former West Indies Test opening batsman Bryan Davis was happy with the performance of Ramdin and hopes that the landmark will encourage him to go on to bigger things in the game.

“ I am happy for Ramdin. This achievement will certainly make him more confident with the glove and bat, which will make him a better allround cricketer. He has worked hard on his game and definitely he will move on with some more hundreds,” Davis said.

Former T&T and West Indies off-spinner Rangy Nanan who hails from the same district as Ramdin - Preysal and who was responsible for the moulding Ramdin in the early part of career was very elated at Ramdin’s performance.

“ I am very elated. Ramdin has all the ingredients to score runs. He has the ability, he is very focused and level-headed. By scoring this century, he will become more confident and certainly he will feel more comfortable in the West Indies line-up. He batted well with Sarwan and I am certain he will carry on in the same vein in future Test matches,” Nanan said.

Manager of the T&T senior cricket team, Colin Borde said that the entire side are elated over Ramdin’s accomplishment.

“ He has been working extremely hard at his batting and we hope that this innings will propel him forward to come the quality Test batsman that we know that he can become,” Borde said.

Ramdin who has went through the ranks of age-group cricket in T&T, also came in for some high praises from the T&T Cricket Board.

CEO and General Secretary of the T&TCB, Forbes Persaud, who as secretary of the Secondary Schools Cricket League spotted the talent of Ramdin was pleased with the achievement of the former Presentation College, Chaguanas, student.

“ We at the board have always known that Denesh (Ramdin) has the ability to bat. It is very heart-warming to see him holding his own with the much more recognised batsmen in the team. We also hope that this milestone will be an inspiration to the young cricketers in the country,” Persaud said.