Born in Alexander Village, Georgetown to parents, Nalini and Hardat “Pepe” Singh (HS), Vishal Singh or as he is popularly known in the cricket fraternity as “Cheesy” has made a break through into the West Indies senior team for the Test series against Pakistan and his father, who has been with him from the start of his career walk us through the journey to the top.
Pepe keeps a whole suitcase of articles of his son’s published accomplishments
Guyana Times Sport (GT) sat down with the overjoyed parents of “Cheesy” for the journey through the eyes of a father.
GT: How do you feel now that Vishaul has been selected to the West Indies Test squad?
HS: Like all parents you are proud when your children do good and I am proud today and he has come a long way and it is good to see he reach where he is through a lot of hard work and dedication and most important is the love of the game. He really love the game when I told him to stick to his studies he say dad I love to play the game and so he choose that as a career.
GT: Do you think this was destined to happen?
HS: yes
GT: What was your earliest memory of his talent?
HS: He was first spotted by Joe Solomon at the GCC ground, Bourda where we were playing a practice match and he would usually go with me to all the matches. So I was bowling to him and Solomon saw how he was batting, he was only about six years old and after the match Solomon said “this little boy has good batting ability.”
Vishal Singh’s Parents, Nalini and Hardat Singh
He called him up and gave him a [pair of batting] pads, a ball and a batting gloves and he said I’m sorry I don’t have any bats right now and I think that kind of motivated him to play the game. He came home and he told his mother how he was very excited about those things when he got them.
GT: What are some of the records Cheesy hold?
HS: When he was 11 he was playing in the third class competition and he got a hundred and I was told that was a record breaking what Ramnaresh Sarwan would have held at the age of 14 making him the youngest player in the history of Guyana to score a century in the competition.
He got the record in England too where he broke Justin Langer’s record where he amassed 1000+ runs playing for Sandwich Town Cricket Club in the Kent League and that club was the love of his life, he really had liked that club. He played four years for them.
GT: What do you think contributed to his success?
HS: It was hard work for him, very hard work. He used to leave home at four am to go to the national park to train. It was hard work getting where he is today, training and going through the different stages.
GT: Were there any hurdles along the way?
HS: He had a lot of injuries along the line of his career one of the injuries made him stop bowl even though he was a very good leg spinner and when he broke his collar bone and was out of cricket for a little while and he had to stop bowling and I think that was a sad part of his career because he was a brilliant leg spinner I had trained him myself and he was really doing well but faith had it he broke his collar bone and that was it for his bowling and I told him well concentrate on batting
Then along that line when he was doing good he had that injury to his knee which kept him out of cricket for a long time and he was sadden when he went to the ground and see his friends play with a crutch but we are thankful that knee was saved from surgery because that knee was swollen like a football.
GT: How did he get the name Cheesy?
HS: He always had a lot of friends and I remember he was playing at the Ghandi Youth Organisation with some of his friends I think one of them was Arun Dhaloo who I think gave him that name because of his style. He had a lot of friends since he was a small boy from Stella Marris Primary coming up to St. Rose’s High he had many friends all bigger than him.
GT: What quality do you admire most in him?
HS: He is a smart boy; he went to University of Guyana having done two years and would always be checking things on the internet like how to do strength training and anything he wants to do like improve his diet especially since he is not that big framed kind of guy.
The Selection Panel of the West Indies Cricket Board announced on Monday a 13-member squad for the first Test of the Brighto Paints presents the Q Mobile Cup Series against Pakistan, starting on Friday at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica.
The squad sees the selection of Guyanese batsmen Vishaul Singh and Shimron Hetmyer. Both Singh and Hetmyer have been in tremendous form in the regional tournaments and in the tour match against the Pakistanis Singh made a delightful 135 not out while Hetmyer made 97. Courtney Browne, chairman of the selection panel, said “Vishal has been one of the more consistent batsmen in the Regional 4-Day Tournament over the last few seasons and had a very good A-Team series against Sri Lanka last year. His hundred over the weekend for the WICB President’s XI against the Pakistanis helped to fortify in our minds that he has a place in our squad. He gives us the option of a solid middle-order batsman around whom our more free-scoring players can bat.”
Singh along with Hetmyer made their debuts for the West Indies on Friday making them the 311th and 310th players to represent the West Indies in test cricket.
