NAGAMOOTOO, MahendraVeeren
D.O.B: October 9, 1975 (Berbice)
Teams: Berbice, Guyana, West Indies
MahendraNagamootoo is a right-arm leg-spinner and a useful lower order batsman who has played five Test matches and 24 One Day Internationals for the West Indies between 2000 and 2002. A nephew of both former Test players Rohan Kanhai and Alvin Kallicharran, he learnt his early trade at the Berbice club level and soon graduated to the national youth team which dominated the regional tournaments in the 1990s.
It was not surprising, therefore, when he was called to senior national duty against the Leeward Islands at the Antigua Recreation Ground in the 1995 four-day Red Stripe Cup competition while still a Youth cricketer.
In a game Guyana lost by an innings and 84 runs, Nagamootoo picked up Test players Ritchie Richardson and Sylvester Joseph while conceding 67 runs and contributing six and two with the bat.
Later that year he earned himself a place in the West Indies Under-19 team to Pakistan and Bangladesh where he was involved in three ‘Youth Tests’ and a similar number of ‘Youth One Day Internationals’ after which he played his first regional limited-overs game.
In 1996, in a losing cause, he mesmerised the Leeward Islands batting at Bourda capturing his best first-class figures of 7-76 in the first innings and returning to bag 2-25 in the second as the visitors reached 86 for two.
Consistently good performances at the regional level influenced the selectors to include him in the West Indies party to England in 2000 where he made both his One Day International and Test debuts.
He entered his maiden Test after the West Indies had already lost the five-match series 2-1 after four games and performed fairly in an encounter the hosts won by a huge 158 runs.
England batted first and compiled 281 with the debutant claiming 2-63 while the regional team could muster only 125 (Nagamootoo 18). The hosts then made 217 second time round (Nagamootoo 1-29) and bowled the visitors out for 215 (Nagamootoo 13).
It must be mentioned that the talented leggie was never given a protracted run in West Indies colours as is evidenced by the fact that he never played in more than one Test in a series.
In fact his second game came in 2001 against Australia in Sydney; his third in April 2002 against India at Bourda; the fourth against New Zealand in Grenada in June 2002; and his fifth and final match against India in Mumbai in October 2002.
However, he played more consistently throughout his ODI career competing in 24 matches over a two-year period ending with his last game against the Bangladeshis in Dhaka in 2002.
Nagamootoo entered the Lancashire leagues in 2004 and was a consistently regular top performer there for five seasons.
He also continued to dominate in regional competitions until 2007 when the authorities parted company with him in preference to a younger brigade of players. He had time though to end his sojourn with the record for the highest number of wickets in regional first-class cricket.
The all-rounder’s efforts were also pivotal in Guyana’s victory in the inaugural Stanford 20/20 tournament in 2006 and reaching the final in 2008.
At age now 35, Nagamootoo turns out occasionally for his club and in specially arranged matches.
RECORD:
TESTS 5: WKTS 12: AVG 53.08: BB 3-119 vs Australia, Sydney, 2000/2001 RUNS 185: AVG 26.42: HS: 68 vs Australia, Sydney, 2000/2001.
ODIs 24: WKTS 18: AVG 55.44:  BB 4/32 vs ZIM, Adelaide, 2001; RUNS 162: AVG 13.50: HS 33 vs Sri Lanka, Nairobi, 2000
(Digicel: Guyana’s Bigger, Better Network)