World Cup Hero Sandhu Drums Up Cricket Support In Vancouver

SURREY - Balwinder Singh Sandhu, a member of “Kapils Devils”, the 1983 World Cup winning team, was in lower mainland this week as part of an invitation from local businessman Varinder Parhar to drum up support for the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and to see what kind of cricket talent Vancouver has.

“I’m grateful to Varinder for inviting me as he is not just a cricket enthusiast but a former student of mine who has played competitive cricket in Mumbai,” Sandhu told the LINK during a visit to our offices on Monday.

“My goal is to get feedback from here and see how we can contribute by promoting and developing the sport of cricket in this part of the world. I’m extremely impressed with what you have and I’m looking forward to working with Varinder and his team to bring the game up to international cricket standards.”

Sandhu was honoured at a function on Thursday evening at Parhar and partners’ Bollywood Banquet hall, which was attended by politician and former basketball player Jagrup Brar as well as Beijind Olympic-bound athletes from Canada’s men and women’s field hockey teams as well as weightlifter Jasvir Singh. Women’s field hockey coach Gurnek Singh Sandhu made an impassioned speech about the need for community and corporate support for his hardworking team featuring Indo-Canadian players like Poonam Sandhu. The all-star cricketer was also joined by

Sandhu, an ace swing bowler who started the West Indies slide in the final in 1983 by getting out their top batsman Gordon Greenidge, said he had long wanted to come to Canada and this was a perfect opportunity to scout Vancouver for cricket as part of his ICL duties and to see if Vancouver has the infrastructure to become one of ICL’s international franchises.

“Our goal in the ICL is to bring good young cricketers up by training them and providing them with the tools that you require in high level competitive cricket,” Sandhu said. “We want these youngsters to think that they can make a living playing cricket and it is not just a side hobby to some other career.”

During his short visit, Sandhu has seen great enthusiasm for cricket in Vancouver.

“People love cricket here and we are not short of spectators,” he said. “What we are short of here is probably infrastructure and somebody who can take youngsters here to the next level of cricket where they can make a career out of it. That is the big picture that needs to be conveyed.”

Sandhu, who also played 8 test matches for India, began coaching after leaving international cricket. He has coached Mumbai and Punjab as well as conducting camps for the ICL youngsters and now has taken over as the coach for Chandigarh Lions.

Sandhu's chance in first class cricket came in 1980-81 when Karsan Ghavri, the regular opening bowler for Bombay, was away with the national side. Sandhu did not play in the first two matches of the season but then his debut against Gujarat where he claimed nine wickets. He was not part of the side to play in the final against Delhi that season, but was included at the last moment when the originally chosen Ravi Kulkarni dropped out. In a sensational spell, he reduced Delhi to 18-5 on the first morning and finished with nine wickets in the match. His 25 wickets in the season came at an average of 18.72.

Sandhu played a significant role in the Indian team that won the 1983 World Cup. Batting at No.11 in the final, he put on 22 runs with Syed Kirmani during which he was hit on his head by a bouncer. Later he famously clean bowled Gordon Greenidge by a huge in-swinger, which the batsman had left alone.

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