Arrival awards for Chanders, Ganga

Cricketers Daren Ganga, Denesh Ramdin, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnarace Sarwan and female boxer Ria Ramnarine will be honoured at a dinner and award ceremony.

‘Khet Khiladi’ (Sports Heroes) is carded for the Freeport Convention Centre, Solomon Hochoy Highway, Freeport, on May 27 at 7 pm.

Guyana-born Chanderpaul served as captain of the West Indies cricket team for two years. He is most remembered by Trinbagonians for his stint with (current West Indies captain) Brian Lara during his record breaking innings of 375 runs against England in 1994. Lara set the record in the Fifth Test match of that West Indies/England Test series at the Antigua Recreation Ground, Antigua. Lara replaced Chanderpaul as captain.

Ganga, the Barrackpore-based cricketer led the TT Cricket Team to consecutive victories in the Carib Beer Cup (One Day series) and Carib Shield (four-day) tournaments. He has been on and off the West Indies Team but has scored centuries against Australia and a fighting 95 against New Zealand in the team’s recent tour Down Under.

Preysal-born Ramdin has been playing international cricket for two years and is now the first choice West Indies wicket keeper, succeeding the Antiguan born glove specialist Ridley Jacobs.

The Guyanese-born Sarwan has been on the West Indies team for the past seven years and is the vice captain of the West Indies team.

Standing at 5’2”, Ramnarine, the Carapichaima-born and flyweight boxing champion has been involved in numerous contact sports, including karate, Jiu-Jitsu, kickboxing and Muay Thai (Thai Boxing), since 1995.

It was on May 27 last year at the Jean Pierre Sports Complex, Port-of-Spain, that Ramnarine won the WIBA Mini-Flyweight World title over the USA’s Yvonne Caples by a very controversial 10-round split decision.

Prior to this, Ramnarine won an eight-round unanimous contest for the WIBA Iberian-American Mini Flyweight title over Diedre (Dee) Hamaguchi of Harlem, New York, USA. The bout took place on July 31, 2004, at the Saith Park Indoor Arena in Chaguanas.

In August last year Ria joined the Chaguanas-based Fine Line Gym where she’s still a member and where she does her weight training.

Some of the top entertainers sheduled to perform at the ceremony are Shivanand Maharaj, Narendra Maharaj, Sophia Mustapha, Tricia Ramdhan, and Petronola Charles.

This function will be held under the patronage of the President of TT, Dr George Maxwell Richards and Dr Jean Ramjohn Richards. Specially invited guests will include the Indian High Commissioner, Jagjit Singh Sapra and members of the West Indies and Indian Cricket teams.

Tickets for the event are priced at $250.