They say “It never rains but it pours.” The death on Friday of the Australian Mr Shane Warne, arguably cricket’s greatest-ever spin bowler, at age 52, followed just hours after his great countryman, Mr Rodney Marsh, a wicketkeeper/batsman who was dominant in the 1970s, and five days after the legendary West Indian spin guru of the 1950s Mr Sonny Ramadhin.

Mr Ramadhin, a Trinidadian off-spinner, paired with the Jamaican left-arm orthodox spinner Mr Alf Valentine to dismantle the English batting in 1950, helping West Indies to their first-ever Test series triumph on English soil.

Mr Ramdhin was 92 at the time of his death on February 27 in England, where he spent the bulk of his adult life.

Said to be the first of Indian ancestry to represent the West Indies in Test cricket, Mr Ramadhin was the last man standing of the 1950 team.

The heroics of Messrs Ramadhin and Valentine, “Ram and Val”, in 1950, were immortalised in the timeless Calypso Cricket, Lovely Cricket, with the chorus line “those little pals of mine…”, as newly arrived Caribbean immigrants in England proudly celebrated their identity.

For hard core cricket lovers, Mr Ramadhin will be most remembered for the variation from his stock off-break, which turned sharply from leg to off like a leg break, and left top batsmen of the day befuddled. Whether that delivery was the ‘doosra’ spun out of the front of the hand or just a traditional leg break guilefully, deceptively delivered from the back of the hand, remains a moot point.

Beyond dispute is that Mr Ramadhin, who captured 158 wickets in 43 Tests before a groin strain forced him out of the third Test against Australia at Sydney in 1960-61, and effectively ended his Test career, remains one of cricket’s great mystery spinners.

Mr Marsh, an aggressive left-hand, lower-middle-order batsmen often drove fear in the hearts of West Indian fans with his hard-hitting, counter-attacking batting style in the 1970s.

Cruelly nicknamed “Iron Gloves” early in his career because of wicket-keeping errors, Mr Marsh, who was 74 at the time of his death, later became among the best wicketkeepers of his time.

In 96 Tests, Mr Marsh scored 3,633 runs for an average of 26.51 and three centuries. As a wicketkeeper, he took 343 catches and completed 12 stumpings.

Mr Warne, a fun-loving man with an ultra-competitive approach on the cricket field, will be most remembered by Caribbean cricket fans for his sensational contests with the West Indian champion of the 1990s and early 2000s, Mr Brian Lara.

Jamaicans will recall Mr Lara’s brilliant match-winning double century against Australia at Sabina Park in 1999, and that while Mr Warne came under intense pressure during that epic battle, he never wilted.

Mr Warne’s great skill and success against all opposition earned him the designation as one of the five top cricketers of the 20th century. And his famous big-spinning leg break, which pitched outside leg and hit the off stump of English batsman Mr Mike Gatting, was widely acclaimed as the “ball of the century”.

By the end of a colourful career, Mr Warne had captured 708 Test wickets in 145 Tests.

Global cricket has benefited immensely from the contributions of Messrs Warne, Ramadhin and Marsh. Their heritage will never die.