Ramnaresh Sarwan

One of the greatest players to play for West Indies, Ramnaresh Sarwan is a right-handed batter with his roots lying in India. Blessed with wonderful technique and footwork, it came as no surprise to some people when he made a blistering start to his career.

Sarwan debuted in the year 2000 against Pakistan at Barbados in May 2000 as a 19-year old and remained unbeaten in both the innings of that match, scoring 95 runs in total. Sarwan's ODI debut followed soon too but it was not as good as his Test debut. His confidence took a hit and that showed in his next assignment against England as well. Sarwan recorded just a single half ton in the 3-match Test series but his technique against the English bowlers in their own backyard was excellent. After an excellent start though, a nightmare series against the Aussies came for him where he scored just 3 runs in 5 innings of the 3-Test match series, before redeeming himself a bit with a half century in the last innings of the third Test match.

Sarwan missed out on his maiden Test ton in his next Test match against South Africa as he was run out in his nineties. That maybe had a major impact on his confidence as it took a total of 28 matches and 49 innings to get to his maiden Test ton. He achieved this feat against the not-so-mighty Bangladeshi Test team back then. One thing that was always in his favour though was that he kept on churning out runs and was not being dropped from the squad. His next Test ton came against Australia in May 2003. Sarwan had a habit of settling in but not converting his starts into huge scores.

During this period, West Indies was one of the most competitive forces, especially in the one-day format of the game. They reached the finals of the Natwest series and were the winners of the coveted Champions Trophy in 2004. Sarwan was one of the pillars of that team. However, amongst all this, the West Indies players were fighting against their own board because of contract issues. That was coupled with injuries and loss of form for Sarwan which resulted in him being dropped for the first time in his career due to poor form.

It always looked like Sarwan was destined to captain his nation someday and that privilege came his way after Brian Lara decided to retire post the ICC World Cup in 2007. However, injuries limited his appearances in 2007 and the captaincy was shared by him and the flamboyant Chris Gayle. It was never an issue though between the two players as both were just happy with the team being successful. On his return to the side, Sarwan served as the deputy to Chris Gayle but it did not have any effect on his performances as he continued to score runs for fun. In the home Test series against Sri Lanka in March 2008, Sarwan scored 3 half tons and a ton. He made his debut in the T20I format against South Africa at Johannesburg in September 2007 but never favoured that format.

It looked like Sarwan always reserved his best for England and that proved to be the case again in February 2009. Sarwan played an unbelievable knock at Bridgetown, scoring 291 runs which ended up being his personal best score in Test matches. However, his efforts went in vain as West Indies lost the series 2-0. In 2010, Sarwan lost his central contract when the West Indies Cricket Board deemed that his fitness and attitude were not upto the required standards.

Sarwan returned to the international fold in 2011. His form though took a huge hit, especially in the Test format and he played his last Test match for West Indies against India in June 2011. His contributions in the ODI format were average throughout 2011 where he failed to capitalise on the starts that he got. He fell out of favour with the West Indies Cricket Board and decided to sign for English county side Leicestershire in 2012. Sarwan enjoyed a fruitful 2012 there, falling just short of the 1000-run mark in the season. This form saw him return to the international fold after a span of 18 months. However, it proved to be his last spell with the national team, with West Indies losing 5-0 against Australia. Sarwan did score a ton against Zimbabwe but that was his only notable score in all of 2013. He played his last international game against India, where he was dismissed for just 1 run.

Sarwan had a wonderful career and also graced the franchises like Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League and the Mohali-based franchise in the Indian T20 League. He scored over 5000 runs in both ODIs and Test matches and was a calm and composed personality on the field as well although his ugly onfield spat with Glenn McGrath is one of the controversial moments in cricket. Ramnaresh Sarwan announced his international retirement in September 2016.