Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
THE WEST Indies team for the tour of Zimbabwe includes Ravi Rampaul and, if my count is correct, if he plays in a Test match he will become the 18th full-blooded East Indian to represent the West Indies.
Starting with Sonny Ramadhin in 1950, East Indians have played an important part in West Indies cricket, none more so than spin bowler Ramadhin himself and batsman Rohan Kanhai and, based on his potential, Rampaul appears destined to follow in their footsteps.
What is interesting, however, is not that Rampaul is on the threshold of becoming another East Indian in the West Indies team, and it is not that with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan certain to play and with Daren Ganga in with a good chance, the West Indies team could parade four East Indians at the same time for the first time.
What is interesting is that the East Indian contribution to West Indies cricket has been as batsmen and spin bowlers and that Rampaul is a different breed. Unlike those before him, he is a fast bowler.
Looking down the list of East Indians who have represented the West Indies, Kanhai, Nyron Asgarali, Joe Solomon, Alvin Kallicharran, Len Baichan, Faoud Bacchus, Chanderpaul and Sarwan, Ramadhin, Ivan Madray, Charan Singh, Inshan Ali, Imtiaz Ali, Raphick Jumadeen, Ranjie Nanan, Sew Shivnarine and Dinanath Ramnarine have all been batsmen or spin bowlers - and it is not that selectors over the years have turned a blind eye on East Indian fast bowlers.
The fact is that East Indians in the West Indies, like those in India, generally do not bowl fast. They enjoy batting, they love to spin the ball and that is why, again like those in India, some of them, like Kanhai, are such exciting batsmen, so many of them, like Ramadhin, spin the ball prodigiously, and why some of them, like the left-handed Inshan Ali, the right-handed Ramnarine, and the left-handed Dave Mohammed, who looks like one for the future, spin the ball both ways from the back of the hand.
One of the few East Indians in the West Indies who did not bowl slow was Ramnarace of Guyana, and in comparison to Rampaul, he was slow very slow.
Rampaul, the right-hander out of Trinidad and Tobago is fast, and according to some, including the selectors, very fast.
Although he was not that fast during last year's Youth series in Jamaica, those who saw him in Antigua during the Zone B section of the recently-concluded Red Stripe Bowl and who also saw the semi-finals and the final of the Bowl were willing to swear on the bible that he was the fastest and the deadliest bowler in the tournament.
That means that he is faster than Daren Powell, and even if he appeared that fast and dangerous because he was operating on the bouncy pitch at the Antigua Recreation Ground and not, like Powell and Jerome Taylor, on the slow pitch at Kaiser, that is fast really fast.
What is good about Rampaul is that he bowls a consistently good length and line, that he swings the ball, that he bowls a good yorker and a good bouncer, that he is aggressive, and that he is competitor.
How good will he become? Only time will tell.
Remembering, however, that Ramadhin, the first East Indian spin bowler to represent the West Indies, became a great player, and that Kanhai, the first East Indian batsman to represent the West Indies, became a great player, Rampaul, the fastest East Indian bowler ever to be selected in a West Indies squad, has a great chance of also becoming a great West Indies player.
