Rohan Kanhai

“His life was gentle; and the elements so mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, and say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!”
— William Shakespeare.

“To see Kanhai flat on his back — with the ball among the crowd beyond the square-leg boundary — after making one of his outrageous sweeps to a good length ball, is to watch a man capable of playing shots fit to lay before an audience of emperors”
— James Scott, May 1966, on the occasion of Guyana’s Independence

“No more technically correct batsman ever came out of the West Indies than Rohan Kanhai.”
— Michael Manley.

“The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson.

By Albert Baldeo
August 12, 2019
Rohan Kanhai – An appreciation

Rohan Kanhai, one of my boyhood heroes, was undoubtedly the most extraordinary batsman the West Indies has ever produced, blessed with such natural abilities that he could eviscerate any bowling attack in the world when he controlled the impetuosities that raged within him. There was beauty in his craft, so much different in his method of annihilation, especially on the treacherous uncovered wickets in his days. Whereas other batsmen could wear down an attack, Kanhai would dissect it with clinical precision. He was poetry, rather than prose. Ballet, rather than dance. Artistry, rather than sheer power, although this never compromised the force with which he hit the ball.

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“Kanhai discovered, created a new dimension in batting…He had found his way into regions Bradman never knew.”
— CLR James

“I remember my first sight of Rohan Kanhai batting at Bourda in 1956. I wrote that night to my father in Trinidad that I had just been witness to a wonder, the best batsman in the world. This was a big claim — after all I had seen, among others, the great Frank Worrell at his elegant best. But I was sure then and I was sure thereafter as I followed Kanhai’s career…of all the sportsmen in all the many sports I have watched in my life I judge Kanhai to have possessed the most compelling genius of them all…It was, quite simply, a special gift from the gods.”
— Ian McDonald.