Vin­ode Mam­chan

West In­dies T20 leg-spin­ner Samuel Badree has praised his moth­er and wife among oth­ers for his rise on the in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et scene.

Badree, who is cur­rent­ly in Guyana where he played in the Uni­ty Cup match last night, has been cho­sen for the West In­dies team for the up­com­ing World T20 in In­dia. It is the third con­sec­u­tive World T20 that the Bar­rack­pore man has been se­lect­ed for and he in­tends to make his mark.

He was a key fig­ure in the West In­dies win­ning the ti­tle back in 2012 against Sri Lan­ka in Sri Lan­ka. He has been cho­sen as one of three spin­ners in Dar­ren Sam­my's side. The oth­er two be­ing coun­try­man Sunil Nar­ine and Bar­ba­di­an Sulie­man Benn.

Speak­ing on his se­lec­tion Badree said: "In all things, give thanks! I would like to give thanks to almighty God af­ter hav­ing been se­lect­ed for my third T20 World Cup. Those who know me would know my rise from hum­ble be­gin­nings to the pin­na­cle of T20I bowl­ing rank­ings.

"My par­ents (more so my moth­er who was both moth­er and fa­ther), my sib­lings, my wife, Sta­cy Ram­lal Badree (ad­mire her tenac­i­ty) and kids (they do not ful­ly com­pre­hend my ab­sence at times), my coach­es (few and far be­tween), have all helped me tremen­dous­ly."

Badree who is now ranked num­ber one on the In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil (ICC) T20 bowl­ing rat­ings, sin­gled out Ben San­too for spe­cial praise.

"I want to say a spe­cial thank you to Ben San­too who in­spired me, al­so my friends, col­leagues at work, team­mates and every­one else who sup­port­ed me through­out my ca­reers as a crick­eter and an ed­u­ca­tor."

Badree who was spot­ted by the na­tion­al se­lec­tors af­ter his ex­ploits with Pow­er­Gen crick­et club in do­mes­tic crick­et is al­so a teacher and has helped many young ath­letes along the way.He re­cent­ly re­turned from Aus­tralia, where he rep­re­sent­ed the Bris­bane Heat in the Big Bash T20 tour­na­ment.