Dear Editor,
I read the article on part of the playing life of Rohan Kanhai, one of most superlative batsmen who ever graced the playing fields of the world. I thank the writer of the article in the Guyana Times for taking us back to the years of super enjoyment and support with pictures of that era. It seems like yesterday that Kanhai was improvising his shots and falling on his back at the completion of the stroke; there is no doubt that Kanhai must be one of the most exhilarating and exiting cricketers Guyana has produced.
But like many other older folks I seek information and or correction from the ones who have been analysing this great game as to whether Kanhai really retired after the drawn series with England in 1974. I vividly remember that West Indies won the Test and lost the fifth, both at Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad and Tobago.
From my memory too, Kanhai was dropped for his poor performance with the bat. It is to be noted that Kanhai for once did not score a fifty, his highest being 49 at Bourda, and I believe he was bowled by Tony Greig in that rain-ruined game; I was there at that game.
By the time the next series with India came around, the selectors named a new captain, Clive Lloyd, and rightly so, with an almost brand new team which proved in years to come to be world beaters.
I thought that the writer should have highlighted the fact that when Kanhai took over from the great Garfield St Aubyn Sobers, the West Indies had not won a Test in twenty matches. He did mention the two nil loss to the touring Australians in 1973, and the series win in England later that year where he scored his first Test hundred. That series brings back memories: Sobers’ hundred in partnership with Kanhai and Bernard Julien’s century.
My main point though is that Rohan Kanhai did not retire, he was dropped, and as the writer mentioned he was recalled to play in the final in the first World Cup and made 55 not out.
Yours faithfully,
Ivan John
