Uniting persons of Indian origin

Tue, Jun 19. 2012

Editor: While persons of Indian origin throughout the world are trying to unite, they are excelling in cricket – a sport that is very popular in India and the Caribbean.{{more}}

Days after the conclusion of a conference of Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), held in St Vincent and the Grenadines, a record of six Indo-Caribbeans have been selected to represent the West Indies in the third test match against India at Trent Bridge in the UK, and if star batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul was not injured, he would have been included in the team to make it a total of seven. The six players are Adrian Barath, Denesh Ramdin, Suruj Narine and Ravi Rampaul of Trinidad and Tobago and Narsingh Deonarine, and AB Fudadin of Guyana.

The first Indo Caribbean to play for the West Indies is Sonny Ramadhin of Trinidad, and coincidentally it was on 8th June, 1950, at Old Trafford, exactly 62 years before the six were chosen. Ramadhin was regarded as a wizard who mesmerized batsmen in the 1950s and featured in the famous calypso “with those pals of mine Ramadhin and Valentine”. Sonny, who was born on 1st May 1929, resides in Lancashire.

To date, there are 32 Indo-Caribbeans, 17 from the twin island republic, and 15 from the co-operative republic, who played Test cricket and the outstanding ones were Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramadhin and Rohan Kanhai. Alvin Kalicharran scored centuries in his first two tests, while another Guyanese, Leonard Baichan, scored a ton in his first test.

Chanderpaul, who so far scored 10,200 Test runs, is currently rated as the No. 1 batsman in the world.

It was said that when Kanhai and Nyron Asgarali opened a Test match for the West Indies against England at Lords in 1957, Everton Weekes, Windies star batsman at the time, jokingly told his team mates that “it appears like India is playing India”.

GOPIO is trying to unite persons of Indian origin, regardless which part of the world they live. The St Vincent conference had representatives from Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Grenada, India, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Guadeloupe and other countries and most of the representatives are outstanding academics, including the Pro Vice Chancellors of the University of the West Indies Leila Gajadhar Sarup and Clement Sankat, Professors Brindley Samaroo, Prem Misir and several others.

Indian High Commissioner of Suriname, who is also responsible for St Vincent and the Grenadines, Malay Mishra, also attended and promised that his government will give all possible assistance to promote Indian culture in the Caribbean and other parts of the world.

Oscar Ramjeet