NASS­ER KHAN

Now a full-fledged pro­fes­sion­al crick­eter for the West In­dies and T&T Red Force cap­tain (he has al­so suit­ed up in the CPL for the St Kitts & Nevis Pa­tri­ots), the 25-year-old Joshua Da Sil­va who will be 26 in June, sat down for a "Ques­tion and An­swer" ses­sion from his busy sched­ule.

He at­tend­ed St Mary’s Col­lege where he start­ed to play, in his words “hard ball crick­et”, and lat­er joined the Queen’s Park Crick­et Club.

Hav­ing un­seat­ed for­mer Test skip­per De­nesh Ramdin as T&T’s first-choice wick­et­keep­er-bats­man, the 22-year-old won a re­serve spot in the Windies’ tour­ing par­ty and starred in the sec­ond of their in­tra-squad warm-ups, scor­ing an un­beat­en 133 and then 56 not out as an open­er. And with reg­u­lar Test glove­man Shane Dowrich head­ing home from the New Zealand tour, the path was cleared for Da Sil­va to step in and make his Test de­but in De­cem­ber 2020.

To date, he has rep­re­sent­ed the West In­dies in 26 Test match­es and two One Day In­ter­na­tion­als (de­but ver­sus Bangladesh in Bangladesh, Jan­u­ary 2021). He made his first-class de­but for T&T at Tarou­ba in the 2018-19 Re­gion­al Four Day Com­pe­ti­tion in De­cem­ber 2018. In Oc­to­ber 2019, he was named on the West In­dies Emerg­ing Team for the 2019-20 Re­gion­al Su­per50 tour­na­ment. He made his List A de­but in No­vem­ber 2019, for the West In­dies Emerg­ing Team in the 2019-20 Re­gion­al Su­per50 tour­na­ment and in Jan­u­ary 2020, in the open­ing round of the 2019-20 West In­dies Cham­pi­onship, he scored his maid­en cen­tu­ry in first-class crick­et, with an un­beat­en 113.

Where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was born in Pe­tit Val­ley where I have lived for all 25 years of my life.

Who are the peo­ple who in­flu­enced you the most, in your crick­et ca­reer and in life in gen­er­al?

My par­ents are the peo­ple who in­flu­enced me the most in my life. They taught me from a young age that hard work is nec­es­sary in or­der to achieve my goals. Count­less drops to and from train­ing and see­ing me through all the ups and downs but al­ways stick­ing by my side. Ca­reer wise a few coach­es stood out in help­ing me through­out. From an ear­ly age when I thought I want­ed to be a foot­baller, coach Dion La Fou­cade, he in­stilled a lot of dis­ci­pline and tough love which made me ma­ture quite quick­ly, al­so coach An­dre Lawrence who was my coach at St Mary’s Col­lege. Al­so coach David Fur­longe who spent many hours be­hind the scenes help­ing with my game.

When and how did you get in­to play­ing crick­et?

I al­ways loved crick­et even though I want­ed to be a foot­baller. My dad and my aunt would al­ways take me to the test match­es in the Queen’s Park Oval to watch West In­dies play. At home, my neigh­bours and I would al­ways play crick­et in the front yard and when no one was home my dad would throw balls for me in the house as much as my mom didn’t like it. I on­ly broke a few win­dows.

What mot­to do you live by and what are your guide­lines for suc­cess?

There are two mot­tos I live by, hard work beats tal­ent when tal­ent fails to work hard. And I can do all things through Christ who strength­ens me. The guide­lines I tried to fol­low were to put in the work and al­ways be open to learn­ing. But most im­por­tant­ly al­ways be ready for an op­por­tu­ni­ty.

Who were your crick­et he­roes grow­ing up?

My crick­et­ing idols grow­ing up were, of course, the leg­end Bri­an Lara, Ramnaresh Sar­wan and Shane Wat­son.

What are some of your most mem­o­rable per­for­mances so far in your crick­et ca­reer?

One of my most mem­o­rable per­for­mances would have to be my maid­en Test cen­tu­ry ver­sus Eng­land in 2022 but I would say the most mem­o­rable per­for­mance of my ca­reer was be­ing a part of the team that beat Aus­tralia in Aus­tralia re­cent­ly…it is go­ing to be dif­fi­cult to beat that!

Of all your ac­co­lades, prizes and awards which do you rate as ex­treme­ly spe­cial?

I think the "Man of the Match" ver­sus Eng­land and to al­so win the se­ries would have to be the most spe­cial! (West In­dies vs Eng­land, 3rd Test, Grena­da, March 2022)

[Com­ing in at No 8 with the score 95 for 6, West In­dies were star­ing at a match-los­ing deficit in re­ply to Eng­land's 204. The ear­ly stages of his in­nings were re­strained with just 13 runs com­ing off his first 86 de­liv­er­ies. Fifty-three came off his next 86 as he be­gan to open up. And then as he steered the fi­nal stages of the in­nings he re­turned to his shell with 34 com­ing off his fi­nal 85 de­liv­er­ies.]

What crick­et goals and or am­bi­tions do you still have?

I would love to play 100 Test match­es for the West In­dies! Short-term goals I would like to be more con­sis­tent so that I can help West In­dies and T&T win more match­es.

De­scribe your­self in two words one be­gin­ning with J, the oth­er with D, your ini­tials.

Joy­ful and De­ter­mined.