Ramnaresh Sarwan - The often underacknowledged troubleshooter of the West Indies

It was February 28, 2003 and the West Indies found themselves in a rather precarious situation staring at the exit of the ODI World Cup. 

At Newlands, it was nothing new for a team that so often threw it away and often, despairingly in crucial contests. 

This was one such occasion. A loss - and it seemed evident- against Sri Lanka would’ve meant West Indians bidding goodbye to South Africa and hopping home on the next flight. 

Their fans’ worst fears seemed to be coming true. Chasing 229, what should have always been gettable, the Windies slipped quickly to 27 for 2, having been 10 for 1. 

With Lara and Hinds back with the asking rate touching five an over and all of this inside ten overs, it seemed all hell broke loose. 

Vaas and Fernando were, quite simply, unplayable under the bright lights of Cape Town’s evening skies. 

But one man kept up the fight and offered much-needed support that Gayle, who eventually scored 55, needed. 

He was hanging in there. He was watchful yet fluent; he seemed a demonstration of restraint amid a volatile cricketing situation. 

He was Ramnaresh Sarwan. 

He had only just pulled Dilhara Fernando in front of square for a confident boundary to reach ten when a faster one beat him for sheer pace. 

But it wasn’t just that; the next one hit the right-hander on the side of his head, breaching past the helmet. 

Resultantly, the gutsy West Indian, who had until such time, seemed confident to chase it down for his side, was lifted off the ground on a stretcher. 

A serious head injury they feared. A blow to the head, it certainly was. 

But it’s what happened in exactly two hours’ time that would define the context of the match and offer a firm evidence of the character that was Ramnaresh Sarwan of Guyana, West Indies. 

With the Windies almost out of the chase, Sarwan, who’d actually suffered a painful blow, re-emerged amid cries of disbelief and sheer amazement. 

Although, by that time, his side had faltered in a rather West Indian way to 162-7 in 42 overs. 

That is precisely when Sarwan launched into an incredible counter assault over the Sri Lankans in playing an inning that perhaps has lessons for this generation’s Calypso willow wielders who put a cheap price on their wicket and throw it away when the chips are down. 

Sarwan’s next 37 runs came off just 25, and much of those through gorgeous boundaries and lofted sixes onto the on-side. 

From being towed away much like a decapitated road car into springing back again unexpectedly like a sports car, Sarwan was all might and guts. He’d take Windies desperately closer to their 229 as his team would bundle out just six runs shy. 

But he was all alone. 

Though that wasn’t the only occasion where he nearly pulled off the impossible. 

In just two months’ time, albeit in a completely different format of the game, Sarwan was at it again. 

Although, this time around, even as he was batting at Antigua in the Caribbean, his opponents were Australia: the colossal powers of world cricket, a side comprising Langer, Hayden, MacGill, Waugh, Lee and Gillespie.  

And on this occasion, the Aussies, after being bowled out for 240 in the first innings, something the Windies responded to with an exact replica score, set the hosts a nearly “impossible-to-scale” summit. 

418 were needed by the Brian Lara-led side, a total, which if chased, would’ve set record books ringing. 

The problem wasn’t just that 418 in those days was a mighty mighty score; the concerning issue was that after playing a few audacious strokes, Lara, with his genius, had walked back. 

The Windies, at this time, were 4 for 165. 

That is when Sarwan joined hands with his fellow Guyanese, Shiv Chanderpaul, to script a bold, seemingly unimaginable rescue act, one that not only saw Windies drub Australia but set the record books alive with an exhibition of batting extraordinaire. 

The harder the Australians tried, the more the Windies duo dug in. 

The more the Australians played the aggressor, the more the Windies batsmen calmly nullified the threat. 

In a contest where the Australians were supposed to the lions, the Windies batsmen turned true predators. The hunter that expected to loom large at Sir Vivian Richards’ land would become the hunted. 

Between them, the left-hand, right-hand combination faced a staggering 293 deliveries, which is still a lot in a fourth inning. And in such duration, they scored 209 runs between them; Sarwan alone made 105 of those. 

Perhaps his greatest Test innings. 

Fluent on the on-side and punchier square on the off-side, a favourite region of his, it was boundaries galore when Guyana’s famous son got going. 

While Chanderpaul defied the pace and spin combo of Australia, one that was almost always lethal, Sarwan exerted pressure. 

The two, in the end, scripted not just a world record fourth inning chase but an important lesson, one the generation prioritising wham-bam stroke play over cautiousness ought to learn from. 

That in the end, the opposition is not what matters as much as your desire to stay in there and hang in when things seem difficult. 

But on his part, Sarwan could really do it all; guide an inning, play the aggressor when the asking rate was high and even paint a dull contest with zing, letting his attacking stroke play form the highlight. 

One such occasion where the latter happened was the 2006 Test at Basseterre, where an India with big names like Sehwag, Yuvraj, and Dravid saw much to their despise Ramnaresh Sarwan hammering none other than Munaf Patel for six consecutive fours. 

It wasn’t batting of a very high class; it was horsewhipping a talented fast bowler most would be vary of. 

Sarwan did save some of his best for the brightest in the game. His Test debut knock culminated in 84 very valuable runs against Pakistan. 

The man who turns 42 today, was barely 19 then. 

But the kid who faced Wasim and Waqar didn’t duck for cover. There was no fear whatsoever. 

Sarwan’s career soared and went from one inning to another with an infectious self-belief that did tell the Caribbean fan that he’d end up as amongst the greatest to have ever come from the islands. 

That his name would feature among the Lloyds, Sir Vivs, Haynes’, the Headleys and the Sobers’ and Laras. 

But inconsistencies and weird selection policies soured a career instead of spurring it to even greater heights. 

Yet, Sarwan, audacious and workmanlike in parts, kept serving the West Indies despite featuring in just 154 Test innings when there’s no reason why a man of his talent shouldn’t have played at least 200. 

What we remember without much ado is how Sarwan’s star faded away from the beginning of the 2013 and 2014 seasons. 

What we don’t quite remember is that of his fifteen test centuries, which is a very decent count, five came against England and two against the Aussies; that’s nearly half of his career tons whilst facing express pace and chin music from the likes of Lee, Flintoff, McGrath, Harmison, Gillespie and Hoggard. 

For a batsman who produced a fifty-plus knock in every 3.3 Test inning, Sarwan clearly played the part he was expected to play, which was perhaps delaying the inevitable when a Lara was gone and giving newfound solidity to a lineup ever susceptible to batting collapses. 

And yet, despite holding on for fourteen long years, featuring in no fewer than 181 ODI’s and 87 Tests, and scoring 11,600 plus runs (both formats combined), Sarwan appears a perplexing figure in the annals of West Indian cricket. 

This is a batsman whose highest Test score is 291, whose ODI average is north of 42 and someone who had a deep part to play in some of cricket’s most dazzling innings. 

And yet, he’s someone who only managed 5,800 plus runs in both formats when his skills perhaps pointed to a run beast who should’ve easily amassed in the whereabouts of 10,000 runs. 

Was Sarwan an unfulfilled potential? Or was he a batsman who figured in a dubious age of the West Indies, where with an in-and-out of form Hooper and Lara fading into the sunset, there wasn’t much hope left anyway?

Truth be told, it’s immaterial! Sarwan played his way, and for as long as he played, he entertained.