Sonny Ramadhin
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| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm off break | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sonny Ramadhin (born 1 May 1929) is a former West Indian cricketer, and was a dominant bowler of the 1950s. He was the first of many West Indian cricketers of Indian origin, and was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1951.
Ramadhin was born in Esperance Village, Trinidad and Tobago, in 1929. His birth certificate had no first name, simply the descriptive "Boy". This easily turned into Sonny, giving rise to his "official" name. He was introduced to cricket at the Canadian Mission School in Duncan Village, Trinidad, 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 where he showed remarkable bowling prowess. 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 [2], [3]. 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, Mehedi Hasan of Bangladesh becoming the second one in 2016.
The 1950 triumph 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.
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