Obituary - Sonny Ramadhin
The Club is saddened to hear the passing of Lancashire Cricket's oldest former player, Sonny Ramadhin, at the age of 92.
Sonny was born in Esperance village, Trinidad & Tobago and was chosen to play for the West Indies team in 1950 which toured England at the age of 20. He took two five wicket hauls in his first two Test Matches and with his fellow spinner Alf Valentine, they took England by storm, taking 59 wickets between them. They were celebrated in a calypso sung by the fans. “Those two spinning friends of mine, Ramadhin and Valentine.”
He was the first East Indian to represent West Indies, a small neat man whose shirt-sleeves were always buttoned at the wrist. After just two first-class matches, he was called up for the famous 1950 tour of England, where he baffled the batsmen with his ability to spin the ball both ways. He bowled right-arm off-breaks and leg-breaks with no discernible change of action.
Sonny was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1951. Altogether he played in 43 Tests taking 158 wickets and played in a very successful West Indies team.
In 1964, he joined Lancashire and in his first season he took 92 wickets averaging 22.23. He played for the county in 33 matches in two seasons and was capped in 1964. He went on to play for Lincolnshire and league cricket for Crompton, Radcliffe, Delph, Little Lever and Daisy Hill amongst overs.
Sonny lived in Lancashire, once owning a pub in Delph. His son-in-law Willie Hogg and grandson Kyle Hogg have also played for Lancashire.
He was always a welcome guest at the former player events at Emirates Old Trafford. Quiet and always smiling, we celebrate one of Lancashire’s finest former cricketers.
We were pleased to celebrate his life at Christmas when the Club sent him a Christmas Hamper on his achievement as ‘The oldest former Lancashire player’.
Why was he called Sonny?
He was shown as KT Ramadhin when he came to England in 1950. He explained why saying, "The kids at school had called me Sonny so I adopted that. But when I got to England they insisted that nobody could go through life without initials. The next time I picked up the paper I'd become K T Ramadhin. I never did find out what my new English names were supposed to be!"
Rev. Malcolm Lorimer (Heritage Team)