Sonny Ramadhin

Ramadhin was born in Esperance Village, Trinidad and Tobago, in 1929. He was introduced to cricket at the Canadian Mission School in Duncan Village, but did not bowl while in school. Under the captaincy and coaching of Oscar Roach, who was also born in Esperance Village, he later played for the Palmiste Club and the Trinidad Leaseholds team. His trials for the West Indian team were two first-class matches bowling for Trinidad versus Jamaica, where he took 12 wickets at an average of 19.25.[1][2] This performance led to his selection for the 1950 tour to England at the age of 20.

He and fellow spinner Alf Valentine dominated the English batting in the 1950 series, taking 59 wickets between them. West Indies won the series by three matches to one, which was their first series victory in England. When England returned to the West Indies in early 1954, Ramadhin took 13 wickets in the first two Tests and was instrumental in West Indies' victory. He was the first bowler to take two five-wicket hauls in his first two Test matches, against England. The 1950 win by the West Indies led Lord Beginner to write the first in a deluge of calypsos celebrating West Indian cricketers, giving rise to calypso cricket. Ramadhin bowled the leg-break and off-break without a discernible change in his action.[3]

In the 1957 tour of England Ramadhin still exerted his hold over batsmen, taking 7/49 to dismiss England for 186 in the first innings of the First Test at Edgbaston. The West Indies made 474 and Colin Cowdrey joined Peter May at 113/3 in the second innings, still 175 runs behind. May and Cowdrey padded away any ball from Ramadhin outside off stump, where they could not be given out leg before wicket.[4] May made 285 not out and Cowdrey 154 and together added 411 runs in 511 minutes, the third highest stand in Test cricket at the time, the highest for the fourth wicket until 2009, the highest stand ever made for England and the highest stand against the West Indies by any team.[5] Ramadhin was forced to bowl 98–35–179–2, the most overs by a bowler in a first class innings. England won the series 3–0.

In 1964/65 he played for Lancashire, terminating his contract abruptly when he lost form.[6] From 1968 until 1972, he represented Lincolnshire in the Minor Counties Championship. In June 1988 Ramadhin was celebrated on the 75c Trinidad and Tobago stamp alongside the Barbados Cricket Buckle.

His grandson, Kyle Hogg was a right-arm medium-fast bowler who played for Lancashire between 2001 and 2014.

• Sonny Ramadhin at ESPNcricinfo
• BBC overview of 1950 series
• Biography at Caribbean Cricket
• Interview with Ramadhin at BBC
• Garry Steckles story on birth of calypso cricket
• BBC history of East Indian cricketers in West Indies