His has been aptly tested on numerous occasions during his gradual,
carefully planned rise from a teenage talent, to a now, more established
batsman/member of West Indies’ and One-Day teams.
Ramnaresh Sarwan has come a long way since his nightmarish outings
as a rookie in Australia in 2001, so much so that at approaching
his 26 birthday, he is a veteran of 60 Tests and 102 One-Day matches.
Born on the Essequibo River island of Wakenaam on June 23, 1980,
Sarwan is of East Indian stock that has produced other similarly
gifted and physically alike batsmen for Guyana and West Indies:
Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kallicharran and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
As one of those who saw the 2001/02 West Indies in Sri Lanka three-Test
series, on DVD, I can attest to the fact that Sarwan, with 318
runs (average 53.00) and genius Lara with a staggering 688 runs
(average 114.66) were the only two batsmen to successfully combat
the ominous Muttiah Muralitharan and paceman Chaminda Vaas.
In fact, of the 1,625 runs made by the West Indies in the series,
1,006 came from Lara and Sarwan.
Over the last few years, Sarwan has developed into a more consistent
scorer of runs for West Indies at both forms of the game.
Vice-captain of the West Indies, he took some time and several
innings before registering that elusive Test century.
To date, he’s got eight and during the first India/West
Indies Test in Antigua, went pass the 4,000-run mark.
Sarwan has also made three One-Day hundreds: highest - 115 not
out vs India in St. Kitts 2006.
Sarwan’s tons:
119 v B Dhaka (2002/03)
105 v A St. John’s (2003)
114 v SA Durban (2003/04)
119 v SA Centurion (2003/04)
261 n.o. v B Kingston (2004)
139 v E Birmingham (2004)
107 n.o. v SA Q.P. Oval (2005)
127 v SA St. John’s (2005)
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