Early years

Dhaniram migrated to Canada, and in 2003, he was picked as an all-rounder for Canada. He made his debut in a List A match against Windward Islands, and he troubled the Windward Islands batsmen throughout his spell, as only runs 15 runs came off his 10 overs while he also picked up 3 wickets. He came in at No.4 to bat and made 18 runs, before Darren Sammy took his wicket. Dhaniram was dismissed for a two-ball duck on his first-class debut for Canada - against USA - but recovered to record 65* in the second innings. In the next few years, Sunil kept producing consistent results, including picking up a 5-for against Cayman Islands, and scoring a 141* against UAE.

2007 World Cup

Dhaniram was a part of the squad that Canada sent to the West Indies to participate in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Canada didn't win any matches, but it wasn't a bad tournament for them, and Dhaniram. In Canada's first match, Sunil made 34*, and bowled 9 overs for 34 runs, while also picking up the wicket of Kenya's wicketkeeper. The second match against England was probably one of the highlights of his career. Dhaniram bowled all 10 overs of his spell for 41 runs while also picking up 3 wickets. That includes the price wicket of Kevin Pietersen, definitely a wicket that will always leave a happy memory in his head. He also made 30 runs with the bat to complete an excellent all-round effort. The last match in that World Cup for Canada was against New Zealand. His bowling effort was forgettable as the New Zealand batsmen smacked him around for 72 runs in his 8 overs. In his batting innings, he was going good on 17, when a delivery from Jacob Oram struck him hard on his hand and forced him to retire hurt. It was a successful tournament for Dhaniram as he made 81 runs in 3 matches, and picked up 4 wickets at an economy rate of 5.44.

Captaincy & late career

Sunil was named captain for Canada's Intercontinental Cup matches against Kenya and Namibia in October 2007, when Ashish Bagai was ruled out because of work commitments. Canada lost both of those matches. However, Dhaniram put out great performances with both bat and ball in those two matches, which includes a 78 against Kenya. In 2008, Dhaniram captained Canada in the famous 2008 Quadrangular Twenty20 tournament, in which big guns Sri Lanka and Pakistan came to Canada to play in a 4-team tournament that also included Zimbabwe. Canada put up a fight, but they didn't win any matches, and Dhaniram had a couple of decent performances with bat-and-ball.

Sunil enjoyed a prolific year, in general with the ball in 2008, picking up his third five-wicket haul for Canada in a limited-overs match against Bermuda and picking up 26 wickets across all formats. He remained a consistent allround performer for Canada, despite his age, and in 2009 was one of six players to receive central contracts. Dhaniram achieved his best score of 144 against a tough opposition in Netherlands, at age 39. That match ended in a draw. A year later, Dhaniram made a 130 against Afghanistan, in a match which Canada went on to lose. The way he was performing, it didn't seem like he would retire that same year. However, at age 41, Sunil played his last match for Canada against Ireland in August 2010, and had scores of 17 and 6, while also called upon from captain, and long time teammate Ashish Bagai to bowl an over in the 2nd innings that went for 4 runs. That turned out to be the end of a prolific career as he announced his retirement after that match.

Sunil Dhaniram is the world's oldest cricketer to pick up his maiden fifer in ODI history at the age of 39 years and 256 days for Canada.^[2]