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AS PIRES PK
My name is Dinanath Ramnarine and cricket has given me everything in my life! My life
it’s cricket.
Everyone calls me Dina. When you sign something with a friend, you put “Dinnas”.
I am originally from and spent most of my formative years in Charlieville, Chaguanas. Over the past 15 years that I’ve lived there, I’ve adopted the Cascade. And Cascade has pretty much adopted me.
But I think people still associate me with Charlieville, where my cricket club, the Comets, is based. I am the president of the club.
Before I got married, my wife was my best friend for seven years. She has been my harshest critic. But also my biggest fan.
We have been married for 21 years.
Respect for women started when I lost my father when he was 51, and I was six, the last of ten children, five sisters.
My mother had to be a strong person to raise us after my father died. Raising me alone was trouble! I was not easy.
Every day should be International Women’s Day. I consider them to be the strongest species in nature.
I didn’t know my father that well…But I know he loved cricket! He was the goalscorer for the Comets for 30 years – the most beautiful writing – this cursive style was appreciated in those days.
I come from a very humble background. We had to plant in the garden and harvest and sell to go to school. Whoever was the oldest had to sell to try to send the other to school. It was very difficult.
But people helped, like the late Abbas Ali. That family, Kamal Ali who still runs Alesco. They almost adopted me as a son, in a sense. They were the father figures I didn’t have.
Cricket school days were good because you actually got lunch! So it was difficult. But it gives you that (drive).
I come from a Hindu family, but my wife and children are Anglican. I have a Muslim family.
I have a deep belief in a supreme being and I love all religion. Everyone learns positive values.
I started school at Charlieville Presbyterian, then Chaguanas Junior Secondary and then Presentation College in form four.
I didn’t go to university because I was too focused on cricket, also a way to put food on the table. I was very lucky to make the Trinidad team when I was 18 years old.
I got to play on the Charlieville Presbyterian school team because of my older brothers, who were all very good. People say my brother Jairam is better than me and they are right.
I used to bat and open the counter but my mother stopped me from playing cricket because common entry was coming.
One day, I saw a teacher taking some of the school team players in a van with an open tray in the back. So I jumped in the car!
The teacher told me that the game was for the best players to try out for the county team and I would have to wait. I felt really, really small.
But I got a ball and ended up in the nets, bowling. There were over 50 students from all over Caroni County trying out, they don’t know who is who.
A man asked me what I drank, so I said, “Roll it.” So I went to try spinning the bowl for the first time. And when they saw me turn around on my feet, a group of grown people began to gather around me. “Come see this guy!” The teacher who took me had never seen me bowl. He didn’t know I could hit. I didn’t know I could bowl!
So many people gathered around me, chatting, I began to wonder if I was going to get into trouble.
They said, “Can you make this or that kind of ball?” And I started taking people out.
As a young elementary school student, someone was spinning the ball. I was the only one out of seven to be selected at the back of the receiving tray.
I made the Trinidad U-19 national team when I just turned 15 and played for four years.
The Presenting College selected me to go on the Garfield Sobers Schools Tour to Barbados.
But we had to raise $300 to go, so I told them I got sick from flying.
The day the team was supposed to go, the coach told my teacher that he was going to take me, and my teacher said, “Dinnas isn’t going because he doesn’t like to travel.”
When they came to my house, I told them I didn’t have a passport. Or $300.
And the village, my community, that same day, collected the 300 dollars. And a villager working with the Ministry of National Security took me to get an emergency travel certificate.
My loyalty and love for Charlieville, I would never forget what they did for me.
My mother told me, “Don’t ever get one
cent to play cricket for the Comets!” So I never did.
I will never forget my debut for West Indies at home at the Oval in Trinidad.
I went outside and the open Carib Stand and the Trini Posse were there. I can still picture it now.
The Trini Posse were really attached to me. They made you feel like a champion. Trinbagonians have also extraordinary for me, wherever I go. This takes it all to me now.
I was the first non-captain president of the West Indies Players’ Association.
The players were very disappointed. The board had invested the players’ insurance fund, their pension money, and lost it.
I had no idea what WIPA was doing. I knew nothing about the structure of West Indies cricket. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I had never run an organization. I was still playing cricket.
One of my first meetings, we asked for 25 per cent of what the board was getting from the International Cricket Council, in line with what other international teams were getting. I sat down with Wes Hall, the president, and I’m saying we need 25 percent or we’re not going on tour.
And I can’t even justify why we need it. It was embarrassing. They started talking this legalese that I couldn’t understand.
The meeting ended in a stalemate. I went to my hotel room at three in the morning in tears. I had embarrassed myself. What would boys think of me?
I drew that 25 percent line because that’s what the players wanted, but I didn’t know the agreements in place, I had no idea about the meeting procedure, nothing, nothing, nothing.
At six in the morning, I hadn’t slept. And then I got a call from the CEO saying they agreed to give us 25 percent.
God have mercy! If the talks were cancelled, I wouldn’t have another step to take!
After the first meeting, I told my wife I couldn’t do the job. She said: “You can give up. Or you can educate yourself, understand your role.”
So I got cricket deals from Australia, New Zealand, England, everywhere. I got major league baseball and NFL contracts and started reading how these models work. I learned everything I could.
We went to about 15 arbitrations and won them all!
We fought for things like securing players. I was injured in South Africa and went to New York to have cuff surgery.
I sat in the hospital waiting room from 7 am. The board did not pay for the surgery until 2:00 p.m.
I was under general anesthesia and the hospital told me I had to leave at 7pm, because the board didn’t pay me to stay the night.
My hand is in a sling. I don’t know where the hotel is. I’m dizzy from the anesthesia.
A guy from Guyanese found out I was in the hospital and he and his wife checked me out of the hotel and I stayed by their side. They bathed me, fed me, took care of me.
I have seen so many players go through similar things.
I do not drink and have never smoked. For my wedding, I had Apple J, the soft drink champagne. This is the mother’s influence.
The defamation case (in which he was awarded almost $1 million), you could answer, but then it becomes a drag. I was attacked without provocation.
The best you can do is go through the court process, instead of responding or taking matters into your own hands.
This was a painful, painful period of my life.
But I feel vindicated and hope other people see this and start rethinking and committing to serving TT.
To me, Trinidadians are smart, smart, really loving people. They can joke about anything. The person just said it in Parliament, and within seconds, there is a meme on social media.
Trinidad and Tobago: I love, love, love this country more than anything else. I have been lucky enough to travel to many different countries. And I can tell you that there is nothing that affects our culture and people.
Lara is a great batsman who has shown the world what we can do. But there are many Laras in every field.
Read the full version of this feature Friday evening at www.BCPires.com
