Dhaniram brothers to play in Fazil Sattaur memorial match this weekend

Brothers Sudesh and Sunil Dhaniram will be turning out on Saturday at the Laurel Creek Conversation ground in Waterloo, Ontario, to be part of the first Fazil Sattaur’s memorial 30-over match.

The siblings started their cricketing careers at Albion in Berbice, Guyana, playing with Sattaur, who came from the same area.

All three went on to represent Guyana at the senior level.

After hanging up their gloves for Guyana in regional cricket, Sudesh moved across to the United States of America, while his younger sibling Sunil migrated to Canada.

Sattaur moved to Canada as well.

Sudesh, who was seen as a naturally elegant opening batsman, featured for USA, while Sunil and Sattaur represented Canada at the highest level as well.

Sattaur died last September due to illness. He was 58.

Along with Sunil and Sudesh, a large number of former Guyana cricketers will be on show, including Clayton Lambert, Rabindranauth Seeram, Azib Alli Hanif, Troy Gobin, Hemnarine Chattergoon, Zaheer Haniff, Nyeem Baksh, Derek Kallicharran, Keith Semple, Faoud Bacchus, Vinoo Solomon and Shameer Sadloo.

The fixture is set to begin at 11:00h and the two teams are a Canada Select XI and an USA Select XI.

Bacchus, Lambert and Semple played for West Indies senior side during their days.

Kallicharran is the brother of former West Indies high-profile batsman Alvin Kallicharran.

The 66-year-old Derek played for USA in ICC cricket.

Meanwhile, the brother of Sattaur, Abdool ‘Bird’ Samad, the main organiser of the event, stated that preparations are going smoothly and he is anticipating a day of excitement.

He revealed that the family is still saddened by Fazil’s passing, but they will continue to play the game he (Fazil) had loved profoundly, to pay homage to him.

Samad played for Canada in International cricket and is a full-time coach.

Like Fazil, Samad is also an active softball cricketer in the Province of Ontario.

Meanwhile, Sunil Dhaniram has played softball cricket in the past decade too while he and Sudesh represented West Indies Masters team in International cricket. (Ravendra Madholall)