After all the recent "talk", the cricket field must have felt like a sanctuary to Denesh Ramdin. He did not get a chance to bat himself, but West Indies' one-day warm-up game against Middlesex was a chance for the wicketkeeper-batsman to turn his mind back to playing the game.
Had he been able to see past the time he got to three figures last Sunday at Edgbaston, Ramdin, one assumes, would have kept his hands out of his pocket, waved his bat to the crowd, pointed to his dressing room and moved on.
As I watched West Indies cricketer, Denesh Ramdin, celebrate his century at Edgbaston with a scrawled note addressed to Vivian Richards, I experienced multiple emotions--dismay, hurt, shame, anger. I wondered aloud about the conditions of our Caribbean. Even as I willed myself to condemn Ramdin, my Intellectual and political instincts steered me in another direction. Whither the Caribbean Civilization?
The Edgbaston Test met a watery end as the final day was washed out, leaving England 2-0 winners against West Indies in the three-Test series.
Umpires Tony Hill and Kumar Dharmasena, who were widely criticised for taking the players off for bad light on Sunday, delayed the abandonment until 3.00pm as persistent rain fell upon Birmingham once more and any prospects of play seemed minimal. England were 221 for 5 in reply to West Indies' 426
Only 187.3 overs were possible in the Test which also lost its first two days to rain, the first time this had happened in a Test in England since 1964.
Denesh Ramdin, the West Indies batsman, has been fined 20% of his match fee for making a gesture directed at Viv Richards after reaching his century on the fourth day of the Edgbaston Test. The ICC charged Ramdin with conduct contrary to the spirit of the game and he pleaded guilty to the offence.
"We all understand the importance of celebrating a milestone, however, one should not use that time as an opportunity to hit out at one's critic or send messages to the world," Roshan Mahanama, the match referee, said. "I hope Mr Ramdin has learnt his lesson from this incident and that we will not see such behaviour by him or any player in the future when celebrating an achievement within a game of international cricket."
Ramdin, after reaching his second Test century on the fourth day of a drawn match, pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket on which he had written, "YEH VIV TALK NAH."
It was a response to Richards' criticism of his deteriorating form after he had scored only 51 runs and kept wicket inconsistently in the first two Tests. Ramdin later admitted his reaction had been emotional.
Birmingham, England – West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman Denesh Ramdin said his emotions had boiled over, leading to the way he celebrated his second Test hundred in the third and final Test against England on Sunday.
