Sunil Philip Narine (born 26 May 1988) is a

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

ian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who plays internationally for the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. He made his

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) debut in December 2011 and

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

debut in June 2012. Primarily an

off-spin Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler, he is also a left-handed batsman. He has played in

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

(T20) franchise leagues around the world and played in over 300 T20 matches. As of 2021 he plays for

Kolkata Knight Riders Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are a franchise cricket team representing the city of Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. The Knight Riders ...

in the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

(IPL) and

Trinbago Knight Riders The Trinbago Knight Riders (formerly the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel) are a franchise cricket team of the Caribbean Premier League based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The Red Steel was one of the original six teams created for the t ...

in the

Caribbean Premier League The Caribbean Premier League (abbreviated to CPL or CPLT20) is an annual Twenty20 cricket tournament held in the Caribbean. It was founded by Cricket West Indies in 2013 to replace the Caribbean Twenty20 as the premier Twenty20 competition in ...

(CPL).

Domestic and T20 franchise career

Sunil made his debut in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

in February 2009 during the

Regional Four Day Competition The Regional Four Day Competition, formerly known as Shell Shield and Carib Beer Cup, is the First Class Cricket, first-class cricket competition in the West Indian cricket team, West Indies. It is administered by the Cricket West Indies. In t ...

, bowling thirteen overs without taking a wicket. He did not play another first-class match until nearly a year later, and after going wicketless in the first innings claimed a double scalp in the second, that of tail-ender

Lionel Baker Lionel Sionne Baker (born 6 September 1984) is a West Indian former cricketer who has played first-class cricket for the Leeward Islands. He is the first person from Montserrat to have represented the West Indies at Test cricket. Personal life ...

. On 20 January 2011, during the

Caribbean Twenty20 The Caribbean Twenty20 was an annual tournament Twenty20 cricket tournament in the West Indies that was held four times from 2010 to 2013. The top performing domestic team qualified for the Champions League Twenty20 tournament. It was replaced by ...

, Narine played his first

(T20) match but did not bowl as the match was rained off before Trinidad and Tobago could bowl. In the end, Trinidad and Tobago won the competition and Narine managed five wickets at an average of 13.40. By virtue of winning the competition Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20 held in September and October, in which Narine was one of three bowlers to take ten or more wickets. He made his List A debut on 20 October 2011 in the

Regional Super50 The Super50 Cup, currently named the CG Insurance Super50 Cup for sponsorship purposes is the domestic one-day cricket competition in the West Indies. It was previously known as the KFC Cup until the fast food chain pulled out of sponsorship in ...

, claiming figures of one wicket for 35 runs (1/35); his wicket that of opening batsman

Miles Bascombe Miles Cameron Bascombe (born 12 January 1986) is a Vincentian cricketer who played a single Twenty20 International for the West Indies in 2011. In West Indian domestic cricket, he has played for the Windward Islands and the Combined Campuses an ...

. Trinidad and Tobago won the competition and Narine was the leading wicket-taker in the competition with 15 scalps, five more than the nearest competitor, fellow spin bowler

Nikita Miller Nikita O'Brien Miller (born 16 May 1982) is a West Indian cricketer who plays international cricket for the West Indies and domestic cricket for Jamaica. He is a slow left-arm orthodox bowler and lower-order batsman. He was the leading wicket ta ...

. Narine is the all-time leading wicket taker in

Champions League T20 The Champions League Twenty20, also referred to as the CLT20, was an annual international Twenty20 Cricket competition played between qualifying domestic teams from some major cricketing nations. The competition was launched in 2008 with the fi ...

history with 39 scalps. In May 2018, he was named as one of the ten marquee players for the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

of the

Global T20 Canada The Global T20 Canada is a 20-over cricket tournament played in Canada. The first edition of the tournament took place during June and July 2018 with six teams competing. Each team featured four local Canadian cricketers in each squad, along wi ...

cricket tournament. On 3 June 2018, he was selected to play for the Montreal Tigers in the players' draft for the inaugural edition of the tournament. In

2018 Indian Premier League The 2018 season of the Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 11, was the eleventh season of the IPL, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the BCCI in 2007. The season, which was held from 7 April to 27 May, saw the return of ...

he became the most valuable player, this was his second MVP award, after his debut season in 2012 Indian Premier League. In October 2018, he was named in the squad for the

Dhaka Dynamites The Dhaka Dominators (Dhakaiya/ bn, ঢাকা ডমিনেটর্স) is a franchise cricket team that plays in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), representing the country's Dhaka City, Dhaka. The team was originally established in 20 ...

team, following the draft for the

2018–19 Bangladesh Premier League The 2018–19 BPL season, also known as BPL 6 or UCB BPL 2019 Powered by TVS (for sponsorship reasons), was the sixth season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the top level professional Twenty20 cricket franchise league in Bangladesh. T ...

. In March 2019, Narine played in his 100th match in the IPL. In June 2019, he was selected to play for the Montreal Tigers franchise team in the 2019 Global T20 Canada tournament. In July 2020, he was named in the

squad for the 2020 Caribbean Premier League. In February 2021, during the

2020–21 Super50 Cup The 2020–21 Super50 Cup was the 47th edition of the Super50 Cup, the domestic limited-overs cricket competition for the countries of the Cricket West Indies (CWI). The tournament took place in February 2021 in Antigua and Barbuda. Six teams ...

, Narine played in his 100th List A match. In April 2022, he was bought by the

Oval Invincibles Oval Invincibles is a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in South London. The team represents the historic counties of Surrey and Kent in the newly founded The Hundred competition, which took place for the first time during the 2021 Engli ...

for the 2022 season of The Hundred in England.

International career

When the West Indies toured India in November and December 2011 Narine was included in the squad. He made his

debut in the third fixture on 6 December, taking the wickets of

Virat Kohli Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the India national cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Kohli plays as a right-handed Batting (cricket), batte ...

and then

Ravichandran Ashwin Ravichandran Ashwin () (born 17 September 1986) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian cricket team as a bowling All-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm off-break, he plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricke ...

to help the West Indies to a 16-run victory. Playing in the final two matches (both won by India) Narine took one more wicket while conceding a further 87 runs. Back in the Caribbean, Narine played three of T&T's six matches in February 2012 in the Regional Four Day Competition, taking 31 wickets at an average of 9.61, and finishing as the team's leading wicket-taker and seventh overall. Australia arrived in the West Indies in March, and their tour began with five ODIs. Narine and West Indies fast bowler

Kemar Roach Kemar Andre Jamal Roach (born 30 June 1988) is a Barbadian international cricketer who plays for the West Indies. He played in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka and has represented the West Indies in Test and One Day International c ...

each finished with eleven wickets and were joined leading wicket takers in the series which was drawn 2–2 . Following an injury to fast bowler

, and the conclusion of the 2012 IPL, Narine was drafted into the West Indies squad for the third and final Test against England in June 2012. At the time he had played just six first-class matches, managing 34 wickets at an average of 11.88. Replacing fellow off spinner

Shane Shillingford Shane Shillingford, (born 22 February 1983) is a West Indian cricketer who plays first-class and List A cricket for the Windward Islands and Test cricket for the West Indies cricket team. On 4 March 2021 it was announced that Shillingford has ...

in the side, Narine made his Test debut on 10 June 2012. A superb performance by Narine of five wickets for 28 runs on 16 July 2012 helped the West Indies beat New Zealand by 20 runs in their fifth and last ODI and win the current series 4–1 at Basseterre, St. Kitts. Playing only in his second Test he was adjudged the Man of the Match after he picked eight wickets which included his maiden five-wicket haul. Narine was left out of the first 2 tests vs New Zealand. As on 8 March 2014 he topped the ICC Twenty20 rankings of bowlers with 784 points.

Saeed Ajmal Saeed Ajmal SI ( Punjabi, ; born 14 October 1977) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer, who played all forms of the game. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler who bats right handed. At domestic level in Pakistan he represented Fai ...

of Pakistan at second, was way behind in points at 714, while Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka with 674 points completed the top three. He is the only bowler to have bowled a

maiden Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

in a Super Over in a Twenty20 match. He was left out of the 2021 ICC T20 CWC squad despite his good performance in IPL 2021, prompting several questions and reactions.

Bowling action

Narine has the reputation of a "mystery bowler", due to the variations that he has on his

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

s, and how he disguises them, but has been reported for a suspect bowling action on a number of occasions. He missed playing in the final of the 2014 Champions League Twenty20 after being suspended for an illegal action with his arm bent by more than 15 degrees and in November 2015 was suspended from bowling in international cricket. His action was reported during the third ODI game against Sri Lanka. In April 2016, he was cleared for bowling in all formats of domestic and international cricket. Narine's action was again reported during the 2018 Pakistan Super League, but was cleared soon after. In 2020 it was reported yet again, this time during the

2020 Indian Premier League The 2020 Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 13 and branded as Dream11 Indian Premier League 2020, was the thirteenth season of the IPL, a professional Twenty20 cricket (T20) league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (B ...

. It was cleared by the IPL Suspect Bowling Action Committee later in the season.

References

External links

*
Sunil Narine
s profile page on Wisden
Sunil Narine Profile and latest news
at

Sportskeeda Sportskeeda is an Indian sports and esports news website, founded in 2009. It is operated by Absolute Sports Private Limited and owned by Indian video game company Nazara Technologies. The website has news, features, commentary and videos on spo ...

Sunil Narine profile page on cplt20
{{DEFAULTSORT:Narine, Sunil 1988 births Living people People from Arima Trinidad and Tobago people of Indian descent Sportspeople of Indian descent West Indies Test cricketers West Indies One Day International cricketers West Indies Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup Cape Cobras cricketers Comilla Victorians cricketers Dhaka Dynamites cricketers Guyana Amazon Warriors cricketers Kolkata Knight Riders cricketers Lahore Qalandars cricketers Quetta Gladiators cricketers Melbourne Renegades cricketers Oval Invincibles cricketers Sydney Sixers cricketers Trinbago Knight Riders cricketers Trinidad and Tobago cricketers