Ramdulars, only sisters to play together for Guyana at senior level

May 11, 2020 Sports

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By Sean Devers
Maylene Ramdular, who will celebrate her 69 birthday on May 21 and her 67-year-old sister Phylles Ramdular are the only Guyanese siblings to play cricket together for Guyana Women’s at the senior level.
Maylene was an opening batsman, while Phylles was an off-spinner who batted in the middle order.
The pair was born two years apart in the Essequibo Village of Aurora and both attended the Aurora Church of Scotland primary, while the younger Ramdular; Phylles, attended the Barnette Secondary School in Queenstown on the Essequibo Coast.
Maylene informed that all of her six brothers are unfortunately deceased, while the other two sisters both reside in the England. Her youngest sister’s Husband is a former cricketer who played league cricket for Surrey.
Phylles, the less garrulous of the pair, spoke about life growing up in Essequibo.
“We played cricket inside the House and in our back-yard with the boys and girls,” said Phylles, the first of the sisters to play for Guyana.
“We had a shop in Essequibo and we would play cricket all day and when our mother came home and found out that we had not done our work we would get licks,” Maylene chimed in with a laugh.
But both sisters claimed none of their brothers had any interest in cricket.
“There was not much to do in Essequibo and two of our brothers left to work in Georgetown. In 1972 I was sent to the City to cook for my brothers who were working and had nobody to cook for them,” Maylene informed.
Maylene said the next year her 16-year-old sister Phylles joined her in Georgetown after completing Secondary school.
Phylles said in 1973 the sisters went to Bourda where a local team were playing Merry Girls of Trinidad and Tobago.
“We are talking about sisters playing in the same match. West Indies player Ann Browne and her four sisters were in that Trinidad team. In the local team there were Andrea Fowler and Dolly Seeraj,” Maylene said.
The sisters, who then lived in fourth Street Kingston, said after that match at Bourda, Mr Lalchan, who owned a store on Robb Street and organised Third-Class tournaments in the City, posted a notice in the newspapers asking ladies who were interested in cricket and a lot of girls responded.
The All-Stars Women’s Cricket Club was formed with the late Eileen Cox, who passed away in November 2014, elected as President. The club practiced at the YMCA ground.
“We would go on tours with All-Stars to so many places to play against big men and we would learn so much from them. We went to Wales and played against (Anand) Sanasie (director of CGI). We went to Berbice and even to Suriname to play against men teams,” said Maylene, the manager of the Mike’ Pharmacy Wellwoman softball team.
In 1974 All-Stars were invited to tour Trinidad for a tri-nation tournament involving Merry Girls and a Jamaican team.
Back then female cricket in Demerara was dominant and most of those selected for Guyana were from that County.
According to the Ramdulars, the 1976 All-Stars were going to represent Guyana in Grenada and Government decided they would fund the tour but they told Mr Lalchan he had many players from his club in the team.
“They announced that the team should be a Guyana team and Maylene, who was originally in the team, was one of the changes. She was replaced by Brenda Seaforth who was named Manager/Player,” disclosed Phylles.
“Back then Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados were very strong in Women’s cricket and the standard of Women’s Cricket was very high with players like Ava Morgan was one of the best female batters in Guyana, while Joni James was a very good Captain and there were players like Margaret Walcott, Dolly Seeraj, Fowler, Margaret McKenzie, Maimoon Yassin and Sharon Legall among others,” informed Phylles.
The sisters noted that the players most times had to seek donations for their travel expenses and never got paid for playing. They remembered when girls from Guyana were selected to go to India with the West Indies team but could not go due to a lack of funding.
Phylles said her most memorable moments in cricket were the tours with All-Stars and playing against the men, while Maylene said her most memorable moment was at Albion in 1979.
“We had played India at Bourda and it was decided that we were a Guyana team with Reds Perreira among those doing the Radio commentary at Albion.
India batted first and we could not get a breakthrough. We had used all our bowlers and Joni (James) threw the ball to me to bowl. I told her that I only bowled in the nets. Phylles was the Vice-Captain and encouraged to give it a try. I did and got the wicket, but rain came down during their innings and washed out the game,” remembered.
She added that many in the media did not realise that it was a Guyana team that played and not the All-stars team.
Both sisters played the first phase of their National careers from 1976 to 1981 when Guyana stopped competing at the Regional level for two decades.
Guyana eventually re-entered regional women’s cricket for the first time after 20 years in 2001.
In 2001, Attorney-at-Law Emily Dodson was elected President of Women’s cricket in Guyana and many of the past players returned to action including the Ramdular siblings, Walcott and Janet Jandorie.
However, by 2003, Berbician Angela Haniff was appointed Manager for Guyana’s tour to Grenada. Young emerging talent Indomattie Gordiyal was the leading performer for Guyana who were led by the multi-talented Diane Ferreira James who also captained Guyana in football.
Guyana was the youngest team in the competition and their lone victory was against the USA.
But while Phylles took a back seat after her cricket career ended, Maylene remained actively involved in the sport and the strength of the National team gradually shifted from Demerara to Berbice who had started a vibrant women’s programme.
Maylene became the head of women’s selection panel which included former West Indies off-spinner Clyde Butts as the GCB took over responsibility for women’s cricket in the early 2000s.
Maylene said the attitude of the players to learn and the love of the game was the main difference with the players in the 1970s and the players today, and many of them don’t listen to advise even though they get paid to play.
“They are just a handful of good players from Demerara in the Guyana team but players like Berbice and West Indies batter Shemaine Campbelle could be compared to Morgan as a batter, while Akaze Thomson and Campbelle are among the few of the present players who listens to advise,” said Maylene, Manager of Guyana Women’s teams for tournaments in St Lucia, T&T and Guyana.
Maylene is disappointed with the standard of female cricket in Demerara and says the national players in the Demerara team have little opportunity to get match practice since, to stay active they are forced to play softball cricket or as in the case of Thomson, ply her trade in the women’s league in Trinidad.
Maylene says that President of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) Hilbert Foster is doing a great job in producing a good system at the Rose Hall Youth and Sports Club for female cricket.
Berbice has produced West Indies players Campbelle, Tremayne Smartt, Eva Giddings and the young Sabieka Gajnabi in recent times.
The Ramdular sisters still love watching cricket and when Maylene visited her sister in England she said they went to three Tests matches in different Counties and last year the pair, along with a couple of her ‘old’ team mates attend the CPL T20 matches at Providence.
Maylene says her son, who works at Mike’s Pharmacy in Bel Air, has little interest in cricket while the sisters have done most things as a team even beyond the boundary.
In 2003 the pair of progressive women, who now live together in Campbellville, opened the ‘Roti Shop’ at the corner of Cummings and South Road.
The business was doing well but disaster struck in June 2018 when Phylles, who was riding her motor Cycle when a car crashed into her bike and broke her left ankle forcing them to give up their business.

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