Beni Gopaul Sankar (born 25 September 1948) is a Guyanese businessman and former

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. He captained Essequibo in its only first-class match, in the final of the 1980–81 inter-county Jones Cup. Sankar was born at Cornelia Ida, in what is now the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara region of Guyana, but was then considered to be part of the county of

Demerara Demerara (; , ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state from 1792 unti ...

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...

. He is thus the only Essequibo first-class cricketer born outside of Essequibo county. Sankar's father, Kayman Sankar, who died in February 2014, was an Indo-Guyanese rice magnate, who rose from a labourer to "Guyana’s most successful rice farmer". Beni Sankar studied at England's National College of Agricultural Engineering in Silsoe,

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

, graduating in 1974, and entered his father's employment, eventually becoming CEO of the Kayman Sankar Group. He was also a director of Demerara Distilleries and Demerara Bank,Past Chairs
– Private Sector Commission. Retrieved 2 December 2014. and in the late 2000s helped to establish Guyana's aquaculture industry, establishing 25 acres of fish ponds at his father's property in Hampton Court. Sankar has also served as president of Guyana's Private Sector Commission (from 1994 to 1996), president of Georgetown's Rotary Club, and chairman of the Caribbean Rice Association. Outside of business, Sankar has been keenly involved in Guyanese sport, holding a pilots' licence and serving as a president of the Guyana Table Tennis Association and as a vice-president of the Guyana Cricket Board. His first-class cricket career was brief, consisting only of a single match for Essequibo. The match was played against Berbice at the Kayman Sankar Cricket Ground, named for Sankar's father and located near his Hampton Court property. Sankar captained Essequibo, and, playing as a top-order batsman, scored two runs in the first innings and 20 runs in the second innings. He also bowled a single over of right-arm medium pace in Berbice's second innings, conceding four runs without taking a wicket.Essequibo v Berbice
Jones Cup 1980/81 (Final) – CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 December 2014. Berbice won the match by nine wickets in what was Essequibo's only first-class match – only the final of the three-team Jones Cup (later the Guystac Trophy) was accorded first-class status, and Essequibo made the final only once, having defeated

in an earlier match. The scorecards of the non-first-class matches played by Essequibo are not available before the late 1990s, and it is therefore uncertain how Sankar played for Essequibo in other matches.Other matches played by Essequibo
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 December 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sankar, Beni 1948 births Living people Alumni of Cranfield University Businesspeople in agriculture Essequibo cricketers Guyanese businesspeople Guyanese cricketers Indo-Guyanese people Pisciculturists People from Essequibo Islands-West Demerara