At the tender age of 16, Seebaran became the youngest player to play for Canada’s senior cricket team in 1988. During a series of trials matches in Toronto to pick a national team he blew away batsmen much older than him. It was an impressive display that made Canadian cricket’s big wigs, like Peter Macdonald take note.
The former president of the B.C. Mainland Cricket League told the Vancouver Province, “He’s like a child prodigy pianist. He knows when he gets to the concert hall he won’t screw up.”
By 1990, Seebaran was being named a provincial Premier’s Athletic Award winner.
It was the start of an illustrious national career for the accurate left-handed bowler – a former Buckingham elementary student and Simon Fraser University graduate – than didn’t end until 2003. On top of his national exploits, Seebaran played professionally for several seasons in Australia.
Seebaran’s talent and love of the game were part of his DNA. His father Ben, already a Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame member, was a Trinidadian immigrant immersed in the Lower Mainland cricket scene both as a player and an administrator for decades. Barry has also followed in his father’s footsteps as an educator, teaching both in Burnaby and Australia.
