Daren Ganga - Batting for his place in history (16 Aug 1998)
He may only be 19, but Daren Ganga has been given a man's job to do
16-Aug-1998
16 August 1998
Batting for his place in history
Forbes Persaud
He may only be 19, but Daren Ganga has been given a man's job to do.
When chairman of the West Indies selectors Mike Findlay and his panel
pencilled in the name of the Trinidad and Tobago youth team captain
for the challenging tour of South Africa in November, they were both
making one youth's dream come true and throwing down the gauntlet.
But the level-headed Ganga seems unfazed by the task ahead.
"I am very excited and confident that I can do well at this level," he
says. "I will love to make my (Test) debut in South Africa and play
against the likes of Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald. And having played
in this part of the world before, I do not think I will have a problem
adjusting to the conditions."
Nevertheless, the youngest T&T player in 35 years to make a Test
squad, Ganga must now go to bat for himself and many, many people.
Brian Lara, his national and now international captain, has publicly
endorsed Ganga's selection, telling the region that, "I know we've
placed a lot of faith in him. It's up to the individual now to go out
there and show he's capable of playing at that standard". But the
youngster from Barrackpore must also now bear a burden of history.
Ganga has the opportunity to become the first batsman of East Indian
descent from this country to make an indelible mark at Test level. In
the 60-odd years the region has been involved in Test cricket, T&T has
had just the lone batsman with an indenture background in Nyron
Asgarali playing among this elite group. But his stay at the top was
short-lived. He managed just two Test matches.
Of the others who have ascended to the Test arena from this part of
the region, all were spin bowlers with only three of the lot playing
in more than ten Tests: Sonny Ramadhin(43) Raphick Jumadeen (12),
Inshan Ali (12). Ganga's fellow villager Rajindra Dhanraj has played
just four times for WI.
Significantly, however, there have been others of similar stock who
have distinguished themselves on the international scene as leading
West Indian batsmen. But the dashing Rohan Kanhai who played 79 Tests
for West Indies and was in his later years team captain, the
diminutive and elegant Alvin Kallicharan (66 Tests), Joe Solomon (27
Tests), Faoud Bacchus (19 Tests) and current star Shivnarine
Chanderpaul, are all Guyanese.
The T&T contribution to this legacy has been poorer than usual
recently. The late Queen's Royal College and national youth
allrounder Shirvan Pragg was denied a promising career by a fatal car
crash in the 1980's.
National opener Suruj Ragoonath seemed to be one good series away from
the Test team last season. But his inconsistent performances on the
West Indies A team that toured South Africa last year have set him
back.
Even before Ragoonath, Justice Prakash Moosai, current national youth
coach Aneal Rajah and David Mohammed all failed for one reason or the
other to get beyond regional level. Ganga's selection has brought new
optimism that this trend can be reversed. He has the chance to go
where few others have gone before.
He will embark on the journey fresh-faced but already well grounded in
the game. Ganga hails from a family with a strong background in
cricket.
His uncle Mahendra Ganga, whom he describes as his mentor and personal
coach from early childhood to the present time, is a former national
Under-19 player. So is Ganga's elder brother Sheldon, while younger
sibling Sherwin represented the WI Under-15 team in the Lombard World
Youth Series in England and played alongside him in the recently
concluded NorTel youth series.
Born to Ramesh and Seerajie Ganga, young Daren received his early
education at Rio Claro Vedic School, Barrackpore ASJA, St Stephen's
College and finally Naparima College where he just sat A-Level exams.
Roy Jagroopsingh, teacher and coach at "Naps", described Ganga as a
very level-headed individual with tremendous potential. "Daren is the
epitome of what a model student should be," he says.
"It is not very often that you find someone with such a high degree of
ability in sport who is able at the same time to perform exceptionally
well at the academics,'' Jagroopsingh enthused. But even before
Jagroopsingh laid eyes on him, Daren was coming through the ranks,
representing the country at the Under-14 and Under-16 levels before
progressing to the Under-19 and senior teams.
Ganga in fact made his debut last year against Guyana at the Queen's
Park Oval. It was a breakthrough at 18, made possible by Lara's
willingness to give the youth a chance. And in his nine first-class
matches since then, Ganga has impressed with his quality, if not
necessarily quantity of runs.
But the Lara intervention aside, Ganga has been blessed with some
other measures of good fortune. Last year when the WI Under-19 squad
was selected for the World Youth Cup in South Africa, he was omitted.
However, Ganga found himself joining the party in South Africa as one
of the replacements for seven over-aged players.
Even before that, in 1995, he failed to make the national youth team
to play in the NorTel series in Grenada. But as fate would have it,
the Secondary Schools Cricket Council selected a national Under-16
schoolboys team to tour England and Ganga was named as captain.
Former West Indies batsman Larry Gomes who accompanied that team to
England as coach, remembers the youngster well.
And he sees Ganga's senior team selection as, "a very good investment
for the future". "The exposure will do him a world of good later on
in his career. Ever since I had the opportunity to work with him on
the tour of the UK in '95 I knew he had the ability and the
determination to reach the highest level," Gomes pointed out.
Come November, Ganga will get the chance to make the faith of Lara and
Gomes pay in runs. And show Mr Jagroopsingh he has truly learnt his
history.
Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)