Thaindian News

London, April 17 (IANS) Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt has already achieved fame as the fastest man on earth and now his bother Sadiki is gearing up to make it big in cricket’s fast lane.

Sadiki, who turned 24 earlier this month, is eight months younger than his half-brother Usain (they have same father but different mothers).

He plays club cricket for Kingston’s Melbourne CC, who just won their fourth successive regional title, and the club’s coach Robert Samuels feels had it not been the distractions due to the success of Usain, his younger brother would have made the Jamaican side years’ ago.

But Sadiki is still focussed and wants to be famous in his own right.

“Nothing is too high to aim for,” he says. “The sky’s the limit, because the talent is there. I don’t see a problem. I just need to put in some hard work. I went to Sydney over the winter and did some training with Nathan Bracken. He believes I have got the ability to make a career. We have been in talks about my going back there next season as an overseas player for Eastern Suburbs, Nathan’s grade club,” Sadiki was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.

Samuels, who played six Tests for the West Indies, feels Sadiki had the potential to make it in the mid-1990s.

“Sadiki certainly has the potential to play first-class cricket. He is an excellent batsman and a very useful bowler, who can turn his hand to both medium pace and spin. The weakest part of his game is his fielding, but he is working hard to improve that,” said Samuels.

“At 19, he was heading in the right direction, but then he moved away from the game when Usain’s career was taking off, and it was only last summer that he finally nailed down a place in the Melbourne first XI. Still, he seems to have refocused now, and the club season is about to start. He could go a long way.”

Sadiki now spend most of his time at the Melbourne ground, in central Kingston. The club has a glorious heritage. Founded in 1892, Melbourne has churned out 13 West Indies cricketers and 27 who have represented Jamaica. Two of those - Michael Holding and Courtney Walsh - went on to claim more than 200 Test wickets apiece.

Usain, also an ardent cricket fan, drops in at the ground whenever he gets time.

“Even up until last season, Usain would come down and bowl to me here, but then he had to stop because he had some trouble in his lower back. My brother is actually a decent bowler. He’s got height and a lot of pace. In fact he bowled Chris Gayle (the former West Indies captain) in a charity match last year, and Chris wasn’t trying to get out - he was genuinely beaten.

For the past five years the two brothers have been living together in smart Kingston suburb of Norbrook. Sadiki at times trains with his brother and that helps him to stay fit.

“I am a morning person - I get up at 6.30am - but Usain is out of the house an hour before that. I tell him to wake me up so that I can come with him, but he doesn’t always remember. When we do go together, I run the same repetitions as he does: if he does eight sets of 300 metres, then so will I. But I am a little on the slower side so he finishes a long way before me. It keeps me fit for cricket.”

It sounds like an idyllic life, but Sadiki - who has not had a regular job since before the Beijing Olympics of 2008 - thinks he has seen an opportunity in Twenty20 cricket.

None of the club grounds in Jamaica have floodlights, and Sadiki feels money could be made out of an evening Twenty20 competition.

“Twenty20 is where the game is heading and if you invest in it, cricket will eventually become profitable. But for me, the short game is just a means to an end. Anybody can go out there and lick two balls out of the ground, but Test cricket is where the real challenge is. That’s the test of your temperament, your concentration and your technique,” he said.