Rohan Kanhai is 85 not out
Rohan Kanhai was born on 26 December 1935 at Plantation Port Mourant, Corentyne, Berbice. He was 85 this year. To mark the occasion, we are publishing two pieces by Ian McDonald and Clem Seecharan, a tribute to the mastery of this gifted Guyana and West Indies batsman.
They are taken from ‘An Abounding Joy: Essays on Sport by Ian McDonald’ (compiled, edited and annotated by Clem Seecharan), published by Hansib in the UK in 2019. Seecharan’s essay is a revised version of his response to McDonald’s piece.
In 79 Tests, between 1957 and 1974, Kanhai scored 6,227 runs at an average of 47.53, with 15 centuries; in 421 first-class matches, between 1955 and 1981, he scored 29,250 runs at an average of 49.40, with 86 centuries. (He captained the West Indies in 13 Tests, in 1973-74.) But more than the records, impressive though they are, is the dynamism of Kanhai’s batting that enchanted the cricketing world from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Shortly after his last Test appearance, in Port-of-Spain in April 1974, Michael Gibbes, the Trinidadian journalist, wrote of Rohan: ‘His niche in West Indies cricket is assured, as is his place in the hearts of all who treasure human excellence in any form’.
Rohan Kanhai: Batsman Extraordinary
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