| Adrian |
Suruj, you've played cricket at the highest level for the West Indies. First of all I'd like to ask you, how did you get into cricket in the first place? |
| SR |
I got into cricket because where I grew up, the village where I grew up, cricket was the only sport that was played and it's natural that you gravitate to what is available to you and, you know, back in the 80s as a little boy growing up, we played cricket on the road, we played cricket with just about anything that was around. Sometimes we even played cricket with plastic bottles because that was the passion. And from a little boy, you know, it was ingrained as part of my psyche that cricket was THE sport. |
| Adrian |
Who were your cricketing idols in those days? |
| SR |
Gordon Greenidge. Gordon Greenidge has been my cricketing icon. I always loved him because I sort of patterned myself after him in some ways because I became an opening batsman and I loved Gordon Greenidge. That was at international level. There are other players but the person who initially had a lot of impact on my cricketing development was my brother who used to open the batting just like I did and actually I patterned some of my cricket after him as well. The fact that he opened I wanted to open as well, my elder brother. So he was one of the influential factors as well. |
| Adrian |
It must have been a dream of yours to play for Trinidad and Tobago. Can you remember that first game? What happened in that first game for you? |
| SR |
Well, yes it was a dream come true and having realised a dream I didn't have a very good first match. I made a duck in the second innings of the game and Trinidad and Tobago, we lost the game and the experience was not one that I would want to remember, you know, because we lost, I didn't do very well but it was a difficult first match. |
| Adrian |
So how did you move on from there then within the Trinidad team, cos you've been established in the team for many years? |
| SR |
Well initially getting established was a bit tough. I was in and out of the team at the beginning of my career but as the year went on, or as I should say as the years went on, I was able to establish myself and I really became a permanent fixture in the team in 1992 when I had a pretty decent season. And from there on, you know, that's where I thought I started to turn the corner. |
| Adrian |
Listening to you playing for Trinidad and Tobago, of course everyone will know the name of Brian Lara. What's it like playing with Brian Lara and how can you summarise his cricketing ability and his skills? |
| SR |
Well the record speaks for itself when it comes to Brian Lara. He's certainly an excellent player and I think in our time he's certainly the best contemporary player. Well, I guess some people will argue that Sachin Tendulkar and himself, well certainly they are two of the top players in the world, and I've been fortunate to bat with Brian Lara. We've have had some excellent partnerships for Trinidad and Tobago and I've also sat in the pavilion and looked at him batting. Just playing with him, even from youth level, playing for Trinidad and Tobago as a youth player together with Brian, has always been awesome. He's an excellent example in terms of batsmanship and as a leader he's tough. He's very, very, very tough, sometimes he can be very unforgiving, but as a player, certainly he's a fantastic player. |
| Adrian |
Is it hard for you playing in the same team as Brian Lara because in some ways you're always going to be in his shadow, aren't you? |
| SR |
Well I think in life things are not going to be the way you want it to, at least not all the time, and you play with Brian Lara, you expect that you are going to be in his shadow. But what is nice about playing with Brian Lara is that so much of the focus is on him that some of the pressure is taken off you. And you know that if you have to outshine Brian Lara it means that you are doing very, very well and so that was a good challenge. But the fact that he was playing on the team it meant that the focus, even more for the opposition, not just the media or the public, but the opposition always focussed on Brian Lara so you were able to go along doing your job, you know, in my case gathering your runs quite easily without anyone really noticing. So that in itself was a positive thing. |
| Adrian |
So it's actually quite an advantage then to be playing in the same team as Brian Lara, it helps your own game. |
| SR |
Yes, certainly because he has such a presence on the cricket field. When he walks out there to bat whoever is at the crease with him, they themselves find runs very easy to get because when he starts to assert himself, you know, captains sometimes they are so much taken up with attacking or defending against Brian Lara that they just forget you and you are allowed to get away with things that maybe if Brian Lara wasn't there they would have been attacking you more as well and you might have been dismissed. |
| Adrian |
Well we want to talk about you as well, Suruj, and you mentioned that you and Brian Lara had some very good partnerships. Can you tell us about one particular game where you had an excellent match and what that was like for you? |
| SR |
Well I've had a few pretty good matches but the one that stands out was a regional game, Trinidad and Tobago against Barbados at the Queen's Park Oval where I got a century in the first innings and seventy or eighty-odd in the second and it was one of those days that you were just in the zone. And you know I dominated the play even though there were a lot of Test players on the Barbadian team and there were Test players in our team, including Brian Lara, and I outshone them all on that day, or for that match, rather. And it was just one of those days that everything was clicking, you know, and I was really in the zone. And that games stands out for me because I didn't just score runs, I really dominated things and that was certainly my most memorable game for Trinidad and Tobago. |
| Adrian |
Did you have any particular bowling adversaries over your years playing for Trinidad? Any bowlers that had particularly good success against you that you always feared when you came to face them? |
| SR |
No not particularly because as a batsman, as an opening batsman, your biggest fear really is getting dismissed and it's not so much a fear of the opposition. And you know that you have to try and eliminate that fear, lock that fear out because fear can paralyse you and as a batsman, an opening batsman, where the ball is new, the pitch is fresh most of the time, the fieldsmen are sharp, they are most alert, you are a bit apprehensive you know and the bowler himself, he's really geared up and really keyed up and adrenaline is flowing, you need to eliminate all the negatives and that fear factor has to be eliminated. There were times when we played against guys who were quite sharp, quite quick and you know they trouble you because of their sheer pace but you have to lock these things out and I think for most parts I was able to do that. |
| Adrian |
Well you say you have to lock these things out but it must be quite a skill. How do you manage to do that because it can't always be easy? |
| SR |
It's difficult. Actually it took me years to overcome that fear, the fear of failure and the weight of expectation. And what helped me to overcome that was a lot of prayers. I mean I have to be honest, this is where my Christian upbringing, or I should say my faith in God really made a difference because you have to get this fear out because you want to do well, you want to play for your country, you have a goal of wanting to play for West Indies, and here I am struggling to maintain my place on our national team. And the challenge was great. And being an opening batsman, and being fairly inexperienced, there was a lot of adversities to cope with. There were a lot of difficult times because my cricket career has been a very chequered career and there were so many ups and downs and hardships and toils and I put my trust in God to help me to overcome the fears that I had on the cricket field. And eventually I was able to do that with a lot of fasting and praying, spending time in the word of God and really, building my faith up. You know the Bible says that God didn't create me to be a failure, he never made failures and I can do all things through Christ. He didn't give me a spirit of fear but of power and I had to start believing the word of God. And I thank God that I have been able to overcome that fear and not just the fear of playing cricket, the fear of conquering the adversities on the cricket field you know, the fear of being dropped from your national cricket team, but He has given me the confidence that now that I am in different things in life that I have that same confidence that God is with me and I can overcome just about anything with his help. |
| Adrian |
You mentioned a chequered career but you've played at the very highest level, and again you've alluded to it just now, you played for the national team. Again it must be your childhood dream to play for the West Indies, that fantastic cricketing nation. Tell us what it was like for you then Suruj playing for the West Indies. |
| SR |
Well certainly a thrill. It is easily the highlight of my career, walking out to play for the West Indies at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad which is my home. And certainly it was a fulfilling moment, a very joyful moment and, you know, I thought that all the hard work had finally paid off in terms of selection. I wanted to represent West Indies with a certain amount of distinction, I wasn't able to do that, but you know I'm still thankful for the fact that I got the opportunity. I always told myself that I would just like to have the opportunity to play for West Indies and I got the opportunity. Sadly I didn't make use of it but you know it took a lot of hard work, it took a lot of struggles. The road to get to the West Indies team to play international cricket, to play Test cricket, was certainly a very, very bumpy one. At times it was very rough and there were a lot of hurdles to overcome, there were some potholes in the way, there were some steep corners, some hills, it was really tough, really really tough. So having achieved that goal or certainly fulfilling it, it gave me a great sense of satisfaction. |
| Adrian |
You played two Test matches against Australia and you hit a boundary off Glenn McGrath. Not many people can say that, that must have been a great moment for you. |
| SR |
Well, what made it great is that fact that... I mean it's really nothing to hit a four in Test cricket because you're expected to hit many boundaries and have a long career when you get up there. What was fulfilling for me was that it was my very first ball in Test cricket and it went to the boundary for four. And what it did most for me really was that it took away that burden of getting off the mark, especially on your debut Test. No-one wants to fail on his debut Test, especially to make a duck, and you know to just get off the mark, and first ball, was quite relieving. |
| Adrian |
And at your home ground as well. What was the response of the crowd then? |
| SR |
Well to give you an example of the response of the crowd, even those deliveries that I left alone they were applauding. |
| Adrian |
And back playing for Trinidad and Tobago you've played for them as captain as well. A great responsibility and again it must have been a very proud moment for you being appointed captain of your own side? |
| SR |
Certainly that was another high in my career, another high point, because it is the joy of anyone I would think or very satisfying for anyone to be in charge of his national team, to be given the highest position to lead your country, and that was certainly a wonderful thing. It had its moments as well, you know, it was pretty tough at times but I thank God for that opportunity as well. |
| Adrian |
You played for Trinidad and Tobago between 1989 and 2001. You've retired now. Can you give us some figures then about your career - how many centuries did you score, how many runs did you score for Trinidad? |
| SR |
Well to be honest I would have scored close to 3000 first class runs and Iwould have played like about, maybe forty first class games. I don't even know of my first class career averages and so on. I've never been one of those to have kept count on those things you know but I scored a couple of centuries for Trinidad and Tobago, in fact I scored three centuries for Trinidad and Tobago, one of which was against a touring Sri Lankan cricket team. |
| Adrian |
You've mentioned already as we've been talking your Christian faith. How important is that to you and how has that been helping you as you've been playing cricket? |
| SR |
My faith in God is what has made me a success. It has helped me to appreciate that life is not just going to be all hunky dory as we say in Trinidad, it's not going to be all smooth. And it has given me the strength to overcome the hurdles. And my faith in God is what keeps me going, it makes me look forward to each day, it gives me a sense of purpose in life, that even if things are not going the way that I want it to, that I can rest confident in the fact that God is in charge, my God is in control. You know in the Bible it promises me that God will be with me always, he would never leave me or forsake me, you know if God be for me who then can be against me. So when the tough times in life comes, and let me tell you there are often a lot of tough times, I have that assurance and my faith is what assures me and it gives me hope in a world today where you know you just can't seem to trust anyone and the Bible reassures us not to put your confidence in men to put it in God. And you know it's comforting to know that there is someone who is greater than we are, someone who loves us, cares for us and is going to work... ultimately work things out together for our good. And it is a foundation, my faith is my foundation and I can look forward to tomorrow no matter what happens. |
| Adrian |
Playing cricket for the West Indies is a fantastic achievement. Which is the most important to you then - knowing that you've played cricket for the West Indies or your personal faith in God? |
| SR |
My personal faith in God has to be the major thing in my life because the attaining of the goal to play for West Indies was as a result of faith and confidence in God. It was a blessing to play for the West Indies, so playing for the West Indies cannot be the highlight of my life. It was the highlight of my cricketing career but the highlight of my life is knowing that Christ died for me, he gave himself for me and that at the end of this battle, at the end of our humanly walk, there is something greater and my faith encourages me that no matter what happens God is going to be there for me and that is certainly more assuring and more comforting than playing cricket at any level. |
| Adrian |
Well the next cricket World Cup is just around the corner, Suruj. Which teams do you think are going to make a real impression? |
| SR |
One day cricket, limited overs cricket is very fickle, it's very unpredictable. It's a game where one player on any given day can really determine the course of the match. And having said that, you look at the records right now, New Zealand is playing quite consistent cricket, Sri Lanka is doing well, but the top team in the world is Australia and you have to look out for them. They've just changed captain and it's as though, you know, they didn't because the transition, the performance of the team has probably improved! And they're quite settled in their planning. They keep changing one or two guys but they are settled in their planning. They know what they want and they know what they're looking for. They are going to be the team to beat but South Africa is at home and the home team always has an advantage. They have the crowd support, the comfort of being at home, the public is there, the media would support them as well and it's going to be tough to beat Australia and South Africa and if I have to pick two teams to reach the final I would think it would be Australia and South Africa with Sri Lanka and New Zealand as the outsiders. |
| Adrian |
Now Test cricket is very different from limited overs cricket and there are players who will excel in the five day match but maybe who won't be quite so strong in the limited over game, and the other side of that coin is that there are players who will excell in the one day game - players like Jonty Rhodes who are excellent in the one day. Can you suggest one or two players, maybe a batsman and a bowler, who you think will do particularly well in this cricket World Cup? |
| SR |
That is quite difficult, but I expect Glenn McGrath to continue to do well. He's the top bowler in the world in both Test and one day cricket and he is very much at the top of his game. I expect Sachin Tendulkar to continue to do well, I expect Brian Lara to have a good World Cup but, you know, you mentioned Jonty Rhodes, I expect him to do well and they are just a few of the players. But in one day cricket, you know, anyone can turn up and have a good series. I mean Astle could be a very dangerous player for New Zealand. So it's really difficult to point out a few but the form books would suggest that Glenn McGrath is going to do well and Sachin Tendulkar. |
| Adrian |
Suruj, you haven't mentioned the West Indies or any West Indian players. Is that because you don't expect them to do well? |
| SR |
I'll be honest. At this point in time I don't expect West Indies to do well because we are the lower half in the Test cricket bracket in the rankings and as a one day team we haven't really been doing particularly well. Our team is reasonably unsettled and whilst Carl Hooper is a very good player he carries a lot of the expectation of West Indies batting on his shoulders. I mentioned Brian Lara and we all know of his capabilities but for West Indies to do well at the World Cup it is difficult to see Brian Lara winning every game for us, and you're going to need more than one Brian Lara to win the World Cup, you're going to need good bowlers as well. And I, as a West Indian, I am saddened by the fact that not many people will hold much hope out for West Indies doing well in the World Cup. But I think in years to come, you know, we have some very good young players who would make the grade and hopefully, hopefully get West Indies cricket, if not back to the top, close to the top. |
| Adrian |
It has been a surprise to me and many other people too that West Indies used to be the great, mighty cricketing nation, and they seem to have lost the passion as well as the skill, apart from the Brian Laras of this world. Why do you think this is? Is there fundamentally a problem in the coaching or is it that the young people in the West Indies now are being involved in other sports? |
| SR |
Well, if you ask the seven million people in the Caribbean what they think you would get seven million different answers. And my answer to that has a lot to do with the attitude of our players, of today's players. It's not what it should be. I don't think the guys are as focussed as they had, the pride of playing for West Indies is far different from what it was in the years of the 80s and 70s and 80s when we dominated, even early 90s. Having said that the calibre of players we have now are not as good as we had before. And maybe the..., not maybe but I'm pretty certain of the fact that during those glory years of West Indies cricket, winning became our greatest enemy because we thought that we would continue to produce good players but we never really put systems in place, structure in place, to make sure that our players remain at a very high standard, whilst the Australians and the South Africans who were in exile for a while, they were putting their house in order to make sure they compete successfully against the West Indies. And we took things for granted back home and, you know, winning became our greatest burden to bear now because of the fact that we thought we were going to keep turning out great players and when Brian Lara came into the scene everybody thought well here, we're going to continue to dominate world cricket. But we have been rudely awakened and now we have been left far behind because technologically South Africa, Australia and even England they have gone far, far ahead and left us behind. |
| Adrian |
So are you optimistic then for the future of West Indies cricket? |
| SR |
At the moment, no. I'm not very optimistic because I think we are very slow in putting things in place to improve West Indies cricket. It's not just about coaching. I think that we haven't used technology, we haven't maximised technology to help develop our players. And like I said before, the attitude of the players, they don't seem to be as hungry as they should be to compete successfully at international level. The passion for playing for West Indies seems to be lacking a lot of the time and I'm saddened by the fact that those in the know in West Indies cricket they cannot say with any great conviction that they can see a change in fortune in West Indies cricket in the next five years. |
| Adrian |
Well now that you've retired from first class cricket, Suruj, what does the future hold for you? |
| SR |
Well as far as cricket is concerned I'm involved in cricket coaching, I'm a West Indies certified coach, and I'm also the marketing officer for the Trinidad and Tobago cricket board, so that as far as cricket is concerned I'm still involved in club cricket, domestic cricket back in Trinidad. And all sorts of things, I've gone into my own business. And more importantly, now that I've retired, I've also started spending more time doing ministerial work, church ministry. At my church I'm in charge of our church sports outreach ministry and this to me is going to be very, very fulfilling. |
| Adrian |
Why do you think that's so important? |
| SR |
My faith has been the pinnacle of strength, the foundation on which my achievements has been based on. All that I have, all that I have achieved and all that I hope to be has been as a result of my confidence in God. And sharing that faith is so very important. I want people to have the experience that I have had. I have in my past been a policeman, I've seen young people, I've been able to speak to young people as a result of playing cricket, you know, that has opened doors and I have interacted and seen a lot of young people all over the world. And I realise that there's a need for people to know who God is and to fulfill their purpose in life and I think my faith and my ministry, my Christian outreach ministry back at home is going to do that, it's going to give me that opportunity to really give back into people's lives, to share some of the experiences that I have had to encourage people because in this life we're all in a race and even if you drop out you're still going to be in the race. It's a race that only ends at death and still there's a reward after that, heaven or hell. And too many people are dropping out hoping that the race would end and they need to be encouraged to keep on keeping on, to press forward, to press forward. And there are more negative things in this life than there are positive things and having had my fair share of experiences of ups and downs and highs and lows I think I'm in a position where I can really impart into other people some form of hope, some form of encouragement that life is worth living, that there is someone who cares for us, someone who loves us, someone who wants to help us. And he's not just a mere person, he's someone who's greater than that, and that is Jesus. |
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