The uniqueness of siblings representing a team has often captivated spectators.
In the West Demerara Cricket Association, Akshaya and Ajita Persaud have been mesmerizing the sport’s faithful followers for years.
While not matching the heights his potential predicted in the gentleman’s game, Ajita gravitated towards academics and these days is focused on completing his degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Guyana while his older brother, Akshaya, is obsessed with playing for the West Indies and balances playing the game and at the same time pursuing a business management degree.
Born to Navinda and Premanie Persaud, the brothers, who also have two more siblings, found education and sports to come hand in hand as a dried trench separated their home at Bushed Street, Cornelia Ida from their school, Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) and a light five-minute walk away from the community ground.
“Although education is the first priority in the family we always find time on the weekends after finishing off our homework to play tapeball on the road with friends,” Akshaya noted.
Akshaya, who is 22-years-old has already represented Guyana at the first-class level after progressing through the under-15, under-17 and under-19 levels.
He was named as a standby player on the West Indies under-19 team for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) 2016 Youth World Cup.
The left-handed, top-order batsman, who captains the West Demerara side in the local Franchise League, was a member of the Combined Colleges and Campuses side in the Regional Super50 competition where he scored two half centuries and picked up a handful of wickets with his left-arm spin.
When the pair was not burning the proverbial midnight oil, the downstairs of their home was transformed into the “Gabba” named after the historic Brisbane Cricket Ground in Australia.
“Whenever we’re home from school my brother and I would play tapeball or softball under our home together. We would fight and quarrel a lot together because we always challenge each other when playing and sometimes when he doesn’t want to accept he’s out we would start fighting and then my Mom or Dad would come and tell us to stop playing,” Akshaya said.
Ajita also said that ‘bottom house’ cricket was one of his fondest memories.
“My best memory playing with my brother was when we used to play at our bottom house, we played test matches between ourselves.”
But for the soft-spoken big brother, it started to move out of the yard and into the field.
As skinny four year old, tagging along to the ball field behind his father, ‘Georgie’ as he is known in the community, Akshaya was captivated by the performances of his father and the other villagers as they consistently smacked the ball out of the ground, often for the youngster to retrieve amongst the dense vegetation wrapped around the field.
A few years later, Akshaya was promoted to the role of scorer and would bring along his brother, who is three years younger, to perform the role of ball boy. By the time he was eight years of age, Akshaya was already in the team with the senior guys he had watched two years ago.
“Cricket runs in our blood. We started playing together from small days. Cricket was introduced to both of us by our father. When I was smaller I could remember going to look at my Dad play. I used to go with him to all the games. Eventually, I started scoring for the team and then my Dad would sit out sometimes for me to get an opportunity to play with the senior guys. After that I started to become a regular member of the team. I started playing with the senior guys when I was eight years old and then I started captaining the team a few years later,” Akshaya stated.
Ajita also suggested that it was through the family tradition that he has gravitated towards the sport but admitted that he does not have the skill of his brother as yet despite breaking into the Demerara under-19 but opting to take up his studies.
“I think he [Akshaya] has a bright future in his cricket career and he will turn out to be one of the best. Playing with him is more than a plus because he has so much experience and he advises me in any situation of the game which I find helps me in my everyday life,” Ajita says.
For Akshaya, the best moment playing with his brother was two months ago against All Youths B in the West Demerara Cricket Association where he got out cheaply but enjoyed seeing his younger sibling steer their side over the line.
“One of our greatest memories together was when we batted together at the crease during a T20 game. I opened and he came in at three. I got out cheaply and he went on to top score that game. When we went home after the game of course he was teasing me about him scoring the most runs that day but he said that he was nervous batting with me because it was the first time we actually batted together in a game,” Akshaya said.
He went on to describe his brother as “a good player.” Who is “determined, hardworking, confident and dedicated,” while revealing that “before we go to play any club game he would challenge me that he’ll score the most runs for our team and that always motivates us to do well. Even playing on the road he would sledge me but in the end, it’s all part of fun and we laugh it out in the end.”
While the two have already established themselves in the side, the next task for the family is bringing young Advaita into the family sport.
“I think both of us are good but my little brother [Advaita] is coming up sharp and with our help and guidance I think he’ll make it a very far and go to the top whenever his time comes, it’ll be a dream come through if all three of us play together for our home team sometime in the future,” Akshaya stated.
