DEONARINE, Narsingh
D.O.B: August 16, 1983
Teams: Berbice, Guyana, West Indies

Narsingh Deonarine is a stylish left-handed middle order batsman and occasional right-arm off-spinner who has been involved in eight Test matches and 20 One Day Internationals for the West Indies to date.
He impressed from his early years at the local and regional youth levels and has always been a consistent performer for Albion – his local club – and for Berbice in the various inter-county competitions.
The one-time captain of the West Indies Youth team made his first-class debut for Guyana against India A at the Uitvlugt Community Centre ground towards the end of 1999 at the age of 17 and promptly recorded an unbeaten half-century.
The next year (2000) he played for a West Indies Select XI against the visiting Zimbabweans and for Guyana against South Africa A as the regional selectors attempted to give him every opportunity to hone his skills.
In 2001, Deonarine turned out for the West Indies B in the regional four-day Busta tournament but in six matches his returns were meagre as he totalled only 178 runs at just 14.83 runs per innings.
He came of age in 2003 with an even hundred for West Indies B against India A at the Kensington Oval and then registered a superb unbeaten 141 while representing a Carib Beer XI against the touring Australians at Everest.
He made his Test debut at Bourda in the first Test of the 2005 series against South Africa when leading players opted out of the action due to a contractual dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board.
In the drawn encounter he reached an undefeated 15 but in his second game in Antigua – the fourth of the series – he struggled on a feathered on which a record eight centuries were made in two innings in eking out just four runs off 44 balls.
Later the same year and under similar circumstances he played two Tests in Sri Lanka without distinguishing himself and was out of the Test arena for four years.
The diminutive, wristy player used the intervening period to further develop his skills and work on his concentration levels since he was consistently getting out when seemingly well set.
In the 2005 season his average shot up to 45.57; 2007 it rose to 57.28; and in 2009 he aggregated 1 068 runs at 59.33 including an innings of 198 against the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) which is his highest first-class score.
He was also involved in several regional and international 50- and 20-over matches and struck a ‘million dollar’ six off the scheduled penultimate delivery of the 2006 Stanford 20/20 final to snatch victory for Guyana over Trinidad and Tobago.
In October 2009 he pummelled the Barbados attack for a scintillating 79-ball 102 not out in a regional limited overs contest that further influenced the selectors to recall him for the Australian tour later that year.
Deonarine played in the third Test at Perth and acquitted himself admirably with 18 and a high-class 82 – his highest Test score – but unfortunately the hosts won the game narrowly by 35 runs.
He contested all three Tests of the 2010 South African series in the Caribbean but useful scores of 29, 23, 65, 46 and 0 point to a recurring problem of concentration.
Against Zimbabwe at Providence in early 2010 he fashioned his highest One Day International score (65 not out) which was good enough to claim the Man-of-the-Match award and victory for the West Indies by four wickets.
He had a lean 2010 regional 20/20 competition and a torrid time in the Airtel Championship in South Africa which followed immediately but injury and fitness issues have caused him to miss the current (2011) version of the tournament putting a damper on efforts to wend his way back at the top.
RECORD:
TESTS 8: RUNS 370: AVG 30.83:              HS 82 vs Australia, Perth, 2009/10
ODIs 20: RUNS 510: AVG 31.87:              HS 65* vs Zimbabwe, Providence, 2010.

(Digicel: Guyana’s Bigger, Better  Network)