Rupert Roopnaraine
West Indian cricketer, writer and politician (1943–2026)
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Rupert Roopnaraine (31 January 1943 – 23 February 2026) was a Guyanese cricketer, writer and politician. Roopnaraine served as Minister of Education of Guyana between 2015[1] and 2017.[2]
Rupert Roopnaraine | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Education | |
| In office 2015–2017 | |
| President | David A. Granger |
| Preceded by | Shaik K.Z. Baksh |
| Succeeded by | Nicolette Henry |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 31 January 1943 Georgetown, British Guiana |
| Died | 23 February 2026 (aged 83) Georgetown, Guyana |
| Party | Working People's Alliance |
| Occupation | Author, politician, cricket player |
| Cricket information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm off-break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1964–66 | Cambridge University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Life and career
Early life
Roopnaraine was born in Kitty, Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana).[3] He played first-class cricket for the Cambridge University team from 1964 to 1966 and was awarded a Blue for representing the university in the annual University Match against Oxford in 1965 and 1966.[4] As a cricketer, he was a lower order right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler.
Politics
In 2015, Roopnaraine was appointed Minister of Education of Guyana.[1] In 2017, he was reassigned to Ministry of the Presidency, and Nicolette Henry replaced him as Minister of Education.[2]
Author
Primacy of the Eye: The Art of Stanley Greaves was published in 2003. Roopnaraine also contributed a substantial "Introduction" to the Peepal Tree Press 2010 edition of Edgar Mittelholzer's Shadows Move Among Them.[5]
Roopnaraine's collection of essays, The Sky's Wild Noise, won the non-fiction category of the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.[6] The judges commented that "in the corpus of non-fiction prose in the Caribbean intellectual tradition, only José Martí and George Lamming rival the range of Roopnaraine's capacities of response, depth of analysis and subtle and mordant style."[7]
Death
Roopnaraine died at the Georgetown Public Hospital on 23 February 2026, at the age of 83.[8]
Selected works
- The Web of October: Rereading Martin Carter (Peepal Tree Press, 1986)
- Suite for Supriya (love poems; Peepal Tree Press, 1993)
- Primacy of the Eye: The Art of Stanley Greaves (Peepal Tree Press, 2003)
- The Sky's Wild Noise: Selected Essays (Peepal Tree Press, 2012)