This graph details the Test Match performance of Rohan Kanhai. The red bars indicate the player's test match innings, while the blue line shows the average of the ten most recent innings at that point. Note that this average cannot be calculated for the first nine innings. The blue dots indicate innings in which Kanhai finished not-out.
Rohan Bholalall Kanhai (born 26 December 1935) is a Guyanese former cricketer of Indo-Guyanese origin, who represented the West Indies in 79 Test matches. He is widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featured on several great West Indian teams, playing alongside Sir Garfield Sobers, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, Clive Lloyd, and Alvin Kallicharran among others. C. L. R. James wrote in the New World Journal that Kanhai was "the high peak of West Indian cricketing development", and praised his "adventuresome" attitude.[1] Kanhai was part of the West Indian team that won the inaugural, 1975 Cricket World Cup.
Biography
Kanhai made his Test debut during the West Indies' 1957 tour of England and kept wickets for his first three Tests, in addition to opening the batting. Gerry Alexander took over the gloves for the last two Tests. A right-handed batsman, Kanhai scored 6,227 runs in 79 Tests at a robust average of 47.53, with his highest score of 256 coming against India in a Test at Calcutta. When Kanhai retired, his batting average was the fifth-highest of all West Indian cricketers with more than 20 Tests. He was famous for his unorthodox shots, most notably the "falling hook" shot, in which he finished his follow-through lying on his back, famously during the West Indies' 1963 tour of England when his innings of 77 at The Oval won the match for the West Indies. In the 1975 World Cup final, when he was grey-haired and in his 40th year, his steady half-century set the platform for an explosive innings by Clive Lloyd.
Late in his career, he became West Indies captain, succeeding Gary Sobers, giving the team more determination and resolve. After Kanhai's retirement, the West Indies called on him to be their first national cricket coach. In charge of coaching the under-19s before being assigned to the Test team, Kanhai's selection was announced at the WICBoC annual general meeting in May 1992 to start work in the autumn of 1992 "for an as yet unspecified period". He resigned in 1995 in favour of Andy Roberts.
The Indian opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar named his son Rohan after Kanhai,[3] and wrote of Kanhai, "To say that he is the greatest batsman I have ever seen so far is, to put it mildly." Bob Holland, the Australian spin bowler, also named his son Rohan, in honour of Kanhai.[4] There is a Wetherspoons pub in Ashington, Northumberland named after him in recognition of his time playing for Ashington Cricket Club during the 1963/64 season when he was brought in by Charlie Chisholm Senior and helped them win both the cup and the league. As one of the world's best cricketers, his time at the club drew large crowds and his benefit matches included many other first-class players from the West Indies, including Garfield Sobers, Wesley Hall, Lance Gibbs and Seymour Nurse.[5]
