SARWAN BIDS ADIEURamnaresh Sarwan - Gifted and prodigious, but eluded by greatnessGarfield Robinson • Last updated on Sat, 17 Sep, 2016, 01:45 PM
Only Gordon Greenidge and the incomparable Viv Richards have higher ODI averages than Sarwan for West Indies © Getty
Ramnaresh Sarwan first forced himself into the consciousness of the wider Caribbean cricket community during a televised game in the 1996-97 regional Red Stripe Cup first-class competition. The game was against the Windward Islands and he made a half century. He was 16.
More significant than the runs he made that day was his demeanour at the crease. The young Guyanese batsman exhibited a level of poise that belied his age. He was compact, unhurried, untroubled, elegant. If you were unaware that he was a mere teenager, you'd be forgiven for thinking that here was a Test veteran showing his class at the first-class level.
Those who saw him then were convinced that the neat, unflurried batsman was going places. Nothing could prevent him. His love for the game and his huge talent were apparent; his ambition to reach the highest level, obvious. There used to be talk that he slept with his bat; an assertion he never denied when asked by a reporter.
Sarwan made his Test debut in the Barbados game of the 1999-2000 Pakistan visit. He made 84* in the first innings, 11* in the second. Watching the game in England on satellite television was Ted Dexter, or Lord Ted as he was called for his upright, stylish, and expansive methods.
Jet-lagged, the former England captain was half asleep when Sarwan made his way to the middle. "By the time he had made 10 runs, I was wide awake sitting on the edge of my chair hardly able to believe what I was seeing."
Dexter was so effusive in his praise for the then 19-year-old that one had to wonder if he wasn't going overboard, thereby placing too much pressure on the young man's shoulders. "I predict with certainty that this slightly-built lad of medium height will average in the 50s or 60s, given health and fitness, for the next 15 years of his career."
Unfortunately for West Indies cricket and for Sarwan himself, it never quite turned out the way Dexter envisioned. The Guyanese batsman did okay. He had a good career, played lots of Tests and One Day Internationals, constructed a few stirring, match-winning innings, and was, overall, a decent player. But the greatness he seemed destined to achieve when he first emerged, eluded him in the end.
Many players would give their right arm for Sarwan' s record. Yet, even his most ardent supporter would agree that he never quite lived up to expectations. His 87 Tests yielded 5842 runs at an average of 40.01 with 15 centuries; useful, but hardly earth-shattering considering that the best batsmen of his time Chanderpaul, Lara, Ponting, Waugh, Sangakarra, Tendulkar, Dravid, among others -- all who averaged over 50.
What slightly frustrated observers was that he possessed the talent to ride in that exalted company. He just never managed, for some reason, to consistently get the best out of himself, the way a player like Chanderpaul, for instance, managed to mine every ounce of performance from the raw material he was bequeathed.
In ODIs, however, Sarwan was outstanding. In 181 games he scored 5804 runs and averaged 42.67. Only Gordon Greenidge and the incomparable Viv Richards have higher averages for West Indies. And a strike rate of 75.74 showed he was no slouch either. To put his ODI record into perspective it should be noted that Lara, arguably the greatest batsman of Sarwan's time, averaged 40.90.
He never really took to the Twenty20 format. Never a big hitter, he probably found it challenging to adapt his highly cultured strokeplay to the demands of cricket's shortest version. Perhaps he was just too set in his ways when T20s became a part of the landscape for him to make the transformation in method.
Sarwan played his last Test when he was 31; his last ODI at 33. It is normally during those years that most batsmen are at their zenith, and so the fact that Sarwan's international career was winding down in his early thirties must indicate that he never gained the level of fulfillment he would have desired when he began. He would, no doubt, hurl much of the blame for that in the direction of the West Indies cricket authorities with whom he had fights and even an action in the courts after they questioned his commitment to attaining the required fitness levels. Sarwan eventually won the case and the WICB had to pay damages.
One highlight of Sarwan's career must have been his elevation to the captaincy in 2007. His elation was short-lived, however, as a collision with a boundary board during his second Test in charge against England at Headingley kept him out of the side for 10 months. Gayle was at the helm and seemed to have had a good thing going when Sarwan returned for the home series versus Sri Lanka and so he willingly settled for the vice-captaincy role.
Another high point was his rollicking 105 from just 139 balls at the Antigua Recreation Ground as his side successfully chased a record 418 for victory against Australia during their 2002-03 tour.
Pretty special as well was his bountiful 2008-09 home series against England. In six innings, Sarwan gathered 626 runs, including a mammoth 291 runs at an average of 104.33.
On the other hand, his first visit to Australia must have been pretty tough, especially coming, as it did, after a reasonable beginning to his Test career. In six innings Down Under, he totalled 54, his highest score, 51. And if he thought Test-match batting was straightforward then Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and Stuart McGill would have quickly disabused him of that fallacy.
He was terribly hurt at being dropped for the second Test against Pakistan in November 2006. The decision wasn't justified, he thought and put it down to politics. "It made me understand that sport is also about politics and that people would do what's necessary to accomplish their own goals, whatever that might be. It was a very humiliating experience, but I think it has made me stronger as a person."
Sarwan signed on to represent Leicestershire for the 2012 season. And while he didn't light up the shires with his run-making, he prospered enough for former England captain Michael Vaughan to suggest that the West Indies team, on tour of England that year, summon the batsman in order to shore up their brittle batting. He also played during the 2013 and 2014 seasons.
As he hangs up his helmet, Sarwan would, upon reflection, be justified in feeling some amount of satisfaction in the way his career turned out. He would've known, however, what many followers of the game would've been convinced of: that he had it in him to have achieved more. He was good. He ought to have been great.
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