Di­nananth ‘Di­nas” Ram­nar­ine, for­mer na­tion­al crick­eter and the for­mer pres­i­dent of the West In­dies Play­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, speaks of his fa­ther­hood jour­ney: learn­ing, grow­ing, and em­brac­ing the role.

“Be­ing a fa­ther is a deeply per­son­al and trans­for­ma­tive ex­pe­ri­ence, shaped by in­di­vid­ual cir­cum­stances and the in­flu­ences that guide us along the way. As a fa­ther of three teenagers–a son aged 19 and daugh­ters aged 17 and 15–my jour­ney in­to fa­ther­hood has been both chal­leng­ing and re­ward­ing.

Hav­ing lost my fa­ther at the ten­der age of six, I faced the daunt­ing task of be­ing a fa­ther with­out first-hand ex­pe­ri­ence. Un­cer­tain­ty loomed, but my de­sire to be the best fa­ther I could be pushed me to seek guid­ance and learn from ded­i­cat­ed fa­thers around me. I ob­served and spoke to these fa­thers, try­ing to em­u­late their ap­proach to par­ent­ing and life gen­er­al­ly. While there is no for­mal ed­u­ca­tion on be­ing a good par­ent, the wis­dom and ex­pe­ri­ences of oth­ers be­came my un­of­fi­cial method for learn­ing.

Apart from my fam­i­ly mem­bers, three in­di­vid­u­als–Mr Azad Ali, Mr Hugh Hen­der­son, and my fa­ther-in-law, Mr Kei­th Sir­ju–have played in­stru­men­tal roles in shap­ing my un­der­stand­ing of fa­ther­hood. They pro­vid­ed guid­ance, sup­port, and fa­ther­ly ad­vice dur­ing cru­cial mo­ments of my life when I need­ed a pa­ter­nal fig­ure the most. I hold tremen­dous re­spect for them, as they ex­em­pli­fy the qual­i­ties I as­pire to as a fa­ther.

With the un­wa­ver­ing sup­port of my wife, Toni, I have em­barked on a con­tin­u­ous learn­ing jour­ney to be the best par­ent I can be for my chil­dren. I recog­nise that be­ing a good par­ent is an on­go­ing process, not a des­ti­na­tion. It re­quires pa­tience, em­pa­thy, and a will­ing­ness to adapt and grow along­side our chil­dren.

Un­doubt­ed­ly, be­ing a fa­ther is one of the most chal­leng­ing jobs in the world. How­ev­er, I count my­self for­tu­nate and thank God every day that my chil­dren have ex­ceed­ed my ex­pec­ta­tions as lov­ing, re­spect­ful, and com­pas­sion­ate in­di­vid­u­als. Their pres­ence in my life has been a con­stant source of joy and mo­ti­va­tion.

Fa­ther­hood re­mains a work in progress–a jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery, love, ded­i­ca­tion, and in­still­ing val­ues like hard work, hon­esty, in­tegri­ty, and giv­ing back. Each day brings new op­por­tu­ni­ties to learn, evolve, and cher­ish the pre­cious mo­ments shared with our chil­dren. As a fa­ther, I am grate­ful for the priv­i­lege of shap­ing their lives and wit­ness­ing their growth in­to re­mark­able young adults.

With each pass­ing day, I strive to be the best fa­ther I can be, know­ing that the love and com­mit­ment I in­vest in my chil­dren will shape their fu­tures and cre­ate a last­ing bond that tran­scends time.”