Loss of a teenaged brother to drug mafia’s bullets shook us

Oshane Thomas, the new kid in the block among West Indies fast bowlers, may be just 23 years old - but has seen enough of the rough life. The shock of losing a teenaged brother to bullets of a drug-running mafia in Clarendon of Jamaica was a hard one on him and the family - albeit it’s often a familiar story in the Caribbean.

‘I was nine or 10 around that time and didn’t know much about life, but it was hard on my mother,’’ grunts Oshane as the shooting crew of Caribbean Premier Leagues drives him to Clarendon - from where his journey began. The CPL has produced three short films on Thomas, Keemo Paul and Rovman Powell as promotional ones for the 2020 edition of the league, scheduled as of now between August 19 and September 26.

As they near the town, the giant fast bowler asks the driver to pull up on the side of the road and points out at a strip of green where the shooting took place. ‘‘It was not a gang war or anything but a case of mistaken identity. They shot him on the leg and as he couldn’t run, they put six bullets into him,’’ Oshane chokes somewhat after all these years, the emotions being still raw.

‘‘The next five-six years were tough, but you ultimately move on,’’ he says before taking the TV crew through the rest of his journey from school to the neighbourhood cricket club - where he had his first brush with local pace deities Michael Holding and Courtney Walsh and during his growing up days.

The CPL film on him, produced by Trombone Productions and Sunset+Vine, opens up with a shot of Oshane catching Chris Gayle in front of the wicket as the commentators gush over his speed and accuracy. ‘‘Oshane is a very quiet guy but with his kind of pace, he is going to make it big for Jamaica as well as the West Indies,’’ Gayle says in the film soon after the shot of his dismissal. Andre Russell, another senior pro of West Indies and the world of franchise cricket, says: ‘‘You cannot get mad at Oshane.’’

Playing for Jamaica Tallawahs, the right-arm pacer clocked 97 miles per hour against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, where he picked up three wickets, which included the scalps of Chris Gayle and Carlos Brathwaite.