Narine's advice helps windball star Hinds find hard-ball success

Known as a no-nonsense and dangerous batsman on the local windball circuit for many years, allrounder Terrance Hinds announced himself on the First-Class cricket scene in 2020 when he struck an impressive 102 not out off just 76 balls against Leeward Islands Hurricanes in a West Indies four-day Championship match at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Tarouba. Hinds' feat was made all the more impressive as it was only his second game at that level for TT Red Force.

Since making his debut for TT Red Force versus Jamaica in January 2020, the 32-year-old Hinds has played 19 First-Class matches, to go along with 15 List-A matches (50 overs). He has also played nine games for four-time Caribbean Premier League (CPL) champions Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) since debuting for the franchise in 2018.

An aggressive lower-order batsman and wily medium-pacer, Hinds has held his own in the regional game thus far. With the bat, Hinds has a healthy First-Class average of 40.89 with one century and six fifties. He has also taken 29 wickets – including one five-wicket and four-wicket hauls.

Encouraged for many years by his friend and champion spinner Sunil Narine to transfer his skills from windball cricket to the hard-ball game, Hinds says he cherishes the opportunity to represent both Red Force and TKR. Additionally, the La Canoa, Santa Cruz native told Newsday he's not giving up on his ultimate dream of representing the West Indies.

For Hinds, these dreams were almost squashed several years ago as he grew increasingly frustrated with his adjustment to hard-ball cricket.

"I started off with windball first. That was my first love in terms of sports," Hinds said, during an interview on September 7. "I wasn't making enough money at the time, so I was playing a lot of windball (cricket)."

He said, "I tried hard-ball cricket and I failed and failed."

Approaching breaking point, Narine stepped in with timely advice for Hinds.

"(Sunil) encouraged me to try and take it seriously because I had a different ability," he said. "Then one year, I was looking to give up and he said try it one more year.

"He told me to transfer my work ethic from windball to hard-ball and see the difference. I followed his advice, and the rest is history now."

Hinds said he took his game to another level when he moved from a Santa Cruz-based club to Bamboo Sports Club. And in 2015, he made a move to Queen's Park Cricket Club (QPCC) which gave him motivation to take his game up a notch as he rubbed shoulders with Red Force and West Indies players.

Last November, Hinds was a member of the Red Force team which won the CG United Regional Super50 crown. In the semi-final against a Guyana Harpy Eagles team which included Windies middle-order batsmen Shimron Hetmyer and Sherfane Rutherford, Hinds had a Man-of-the-Match performance as he grabbed figures of four for 15 to help bowl uot the opposition for a paltry 105.

With his low, slingy action, Hinds took the wickets of Kevin Sinclair, Tevin Imlach, Kemol Savory and Hetmyer, whom he dismissed via a spectacular one-handed return catch.

Hinds said the performance was a special one for him, and the significance of the moment seemed to grow with each wicket as the allrounder celebrated by paying tribute to loved ones who had passed away. After each wicket, Hinds made a gesture with his hands, before pointing to the heavens.

"I lost my sister, my uncle, my mum and my grandmother to covid19," he said. "I have a tattoo of their initials on my fingers. I do that for them. That's where the celebration came from."

Now a member of the Central Sports team which copped the TT Cricket Board's (TTCB) National League Premiership I and Twenty/20 Festival titles this year, Hinds has set his sights on a fruitful CPL season with TKR.

"I'd like to have a good standard bowling-wise and be consistent. I don't like to set goals because sometimes you don't reach them and you feel disappointed in yourself.

"I set standards. I'd try to tick off a box in each game."

On September 13, Hinds made a handy cameo of 14 not out from five balls and arguably ticked a couple of those boxes when he hit former West Indies captain Jason Holder for a six off the penultimate ball of the game to give TKR a tense two-wicket win over the Barbados Royals at Kensington Oval.

It could be a sign of more things to come for the talented Hinds as TKR get ready to make a five-game home-stand in Trinidad, starting September 18 at the Queen's Park Oval.