By Frederick Halley

TORONTO, Canada – Off-spinning all-rounder Krishnadat Ramoo has made an enterprising start to his first stint on the Canadian scene. Representing Hawaiian Arctic Cricket Club (HACC) in the Scarborough Cricket Association (SCA) in the Elite League, Ramoo has been quite a force to be reckoned with.

After missing the first three games of the 2018 season, Ramoo had a somewhat under-par performance in his first, versus Victoria Park, when he failed to score and took one for 28. However, the soft-spoken but dynamic player has been a churning out brilliant performances with both bat and ball ever since.

Ramoo has already claimed 16 wickets – by far the best by a HACC player – at a miserly cost of 6.75 runs per wicket, including two five-wicket hauls. In his second game against Ambassadors, Ramoo had the amazing figures of five for 18 in seven overs and followed this up for with five for 19 in 10 miserly overs versus Superstars/Islaanders with HACC romping to easy wins.

He also took three for 27 in nine overs against defending champions Highland Creek in a nail-biting one-run victory.

While Ramoo hasn’t been that prolific with the bat in the 50-over version, his fine 71 against Highland Creek played a major role in HACC’s narrow win, allowing the club the luxury of leading the point-standings after eight matches with four still remaining.

Ramoo, however, showed batting mettle in the T20 tournament with impressive scores of 64, 46 and 41 against Ambassadors, Knightly and Victoria Park respectively while his best bowling was three for 32 against Knightly.

The now 28-year-old Ramoo’s cricketing career has had its ups and downs but the all-rounder still feels he has much to offer the sunshine game.

At the still ripe age of 20, the Bush Lot, West Berbice cricketer was making headlines for Universal DVD Berbice Titans in the DJ Stress T20 Cricket Festival, playing alongside the likes of Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons and Ryad Emrit.

Ramoo was part of the Royston Crandon-led Universal DVD Berbice Titans who trounced Gayle’s New Line Cavaliers in the 2010 final, played at the Guyana National Stadium, after going down to the same side the previous year at the Albion Cricket Club ground. His two for 28 included Gayle.

Prior to that he was voted the best bowler and also grabbed the man-of-the-match award for his four for 28 in the semi-final versus Gizmos and Gadgets Georgetown Pitbulls.

These fine performances, coupled with others on the local scene, saw Ramoo named in the standby list for Guyana’s team to the historic T20 tournament in South Africa.

Ramoo previously represented Berbice at both the Under-17 and U-19 levels in 2006 and 2008 respectively and by 2009 was part of the Berbice senior four-day team despite failing to make the final X1 in the Inter-county tournament.

By 2010 he, however, donned Berbice colours, playing mostly in the one-day version. He has been representing West Berbice in the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Franchise tournament since its inception, including serving as captain in 2017 and has been churning out impressive performances which seemed to have gone unnoticed.

In the interim, Ramoo has been plying his trade in Trinidad and Tobago, Boston and more recently Toronto, Canada. Between 2011 and 2015 he turned out for Victoria United in the second division tournament while he has been representing Yorkshire from 2016.

In 2014, Ramoo skippered Victoria United to championship honours while he also led Yorkshire to the second spot in this year’s tournament, earning them promotion to the Premiere League.

In the United States, Ramoo has been playing for Riverside Cricket Club in the Boston Commonwealth Cricket League where his team placed second in 2016 and reached the final in 2017.