Trinidadian Sonny Ramadhin bowled the West Indies to victory over England in 1950 ©Getty Images

The Cricket Heritage Museum in Port of Spain has received two precious items from the collection of legendary West Indies spin bowler Sonny Ramadhin.

His son Craig presented an original painting of his father and a tie pin commemorating the late Ramadhin's most famous match to Queen's Park Cricket Club President Nigel Camacho.

Ramadhin took 11 wickets for 152 at Lord's Cricket Ground in London in the second Test match of the 1950 series.

He bowled in tandem with Alf Valentine as the West Indies won by 326 runs.

The pair's exploits excited exuberant West Indian spectators and inspired a calypso by Lord Beginner, real name Egbert Moore, called the Victory Test Match which begins with the words "Cricket Lovely Cricket" and ends with the refrain, "with those little pals of mine Ramadhin and Valentine".

There is no film of the match because newsreel companies were on strike at the time.


It was one of 19 calypsoes inspired by his bowling, always with sleeves buttoned down.

Ramadhin was born in 1929 in St Charles village near Princes Town in Trinidad.

He was chosen to tour England with John Goddard's West Indies team at the age of 20 after only two first-class matches. 

Ramadhin made his Test debut at Old Trafford as the first of East Indian heritage to represent the team.

In 1950 he took 26 wickets as the West Indies won a series in England for the first time.

The England team included future captain Sir Leonard Hutton who described Ramadhin as the "Prince of slow bowlers".

In all he played 43 Test matches including the legendary tied Test against Australia in 1960.

Ramadhin also played for Lancashire County Cricket Club and club cricket in the Lancashire Leagues.

He returned to Lord's in the year 2000 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his greatest match and died aged 92 in February this year.