Guillen connection in NZ team
-Tony Cozier
Friday, January 15th 2010
THE surname van Beek doesn’t even hint at a West Indian connection but the genes are clearly strong in one of New Zealand’s most talented young sportsmen.
Logan Van Beek, who is in the New Zealand team in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Under-19 World Cup that started in his native Christchurch last night (T&T time), is the grandson of 85-year-old Simpson ’Sammy’ Guillen, who kept wicket for the West Indies in five Tests on the 1951-52 tour of Australia and New Zealand before settling in New Zealand for whom he played three Tests, all against the West Indies in their 1956 series there.
A tall, hard-hitting right-hand batsman and fast bowler, van Beek, 19, was also in the New Zealand team as a point guard in the World Under-19 Basketball Championships in Auckland last July.
’He’s got sport in his blood and probably a little of the West Indian flair,’ Guillen, still fit and active, said from his home in Christchurch yesterday. ’My father, Victor, and my brother, Noel, played cricket for Trinidad just as I did and I now see that Noel’s grandson Justin is in the Trinidad team at present.
’Logan has certainly made me very proud,’ he added. ’He’s a good lad and we’re very close. I like to think I’ve had a little to do with his development.’
Van Beek is the son of Guillen’s daughter, Sally, and husband Verdi.
