Nurse kept WI cricket healthy

Did you admire Desmond Haynes who was one part of the great GreenidgeHaynes alliance in West Indies cricket Were you also awestruck by the giant efforts of Big Bird Joel Garner If so theres a Nurse to thank ndash Seymour 85 the former Test batsman who passed away in Barbados on MondayTony Cozier the late encyclopaedic pundit of WI cricket told his readers in 1978 not long after Haynes smashed 148 off 136 deliveries in an ODI against Australia after which he earned the nickname Hammer Haynes that Haynes then nine made his way to the Kensington Oval in Barbados and watched Nurse peel a double hundred off Australia in 1965There were a lot of runs scored in that Test ndash double tons by Australian openers Bill Lawry and captain Bob Simpson a hundred by Bob Cowper and threefigure knocks from the blades of Rohan Kanhai and Nurse But Haynes returned home inspired and Cozier observed by 1978 that Haynes had vivid traces of the captivating Nurse style through his shots to midwicket the late flick of the wrists and the straight driveIt was no surprise then to read Haynes admitting in Lion of Barbados by Rob Steen that We walked like him talked like him imitated the way he wiggled his headGarner is another Barbadian who probably wouldnt have made it to the international stage had it not been for SM Nurse Garner had scored some runs for Foundation Schools second XI and when Nurse became his schools coach young Garner looked forward to some batting lessons from the Barbados hero Garner revealed in his autobiography Big Bird that Nurse yelled out to him as he was batting in the school nets Garner whats a big fellow like you doing batting or trying to batYoure too big to be a batsman With your height son you should be bowlinghellip fastWithin a decade after being finetuned by Wes Hall and Garfield Sobers Garner made his Shell Shield debut for Barbados against Leeward and Windward Islands in 1976I am forever grateful to Seymour Nurse for recognising whatever potential I might have had and for having the judgment and common sense to put it across to me in a way that would be acceptable wrote GarnerAs regards his own career Nurse missed out on regular opportunities in the first half of his international career through injuries He became a regular only after the 196465 home series against Australia and as cricket writer Clayton Goodwin reckoned Nurse was the soul of Soberss 1966 team in England This is manifest in the fact that Nurse scored 501 runs in five Tests His lone century came at Leeds where WI won by an innings and 55 runs but his 93 in a total of 235 was just as valuable if not more at Nottingham where the tourists won by 139 runs despite a 90run first innings deficitNurse played two Tests in India during the 196667 series He missed the opening Test in Mumbai due to a finger injury and Clive Lloyd was drafted in the playing XI half an hour before play commenced at Brabourne StadiumHe returned to the side for the second Test at Kolkata and was all set to resume his innings on Day Two when riots erupted at Eden Gardens due to a ticketrelated issue Play was abandoned for the day and action only resumed after the rest day He scored 56 which included a six off Test debutant Bishan Singh Bedi ndash A six through extracover is a rarity and Nurse has achieved it off Bedi said the caption to the Nurse photograph published in Sport amp Pastime magazineThe 196768 home series against England turned out to be another successful one for Nurse ndash 434 runs during the fiveTest series in which he was asked to open but not as runheavy as the tour to New Zealand against whom he amassed 558 runs in three Tests He is believed to have sent his resignation to the WI board during the tour and Nurse went down in history as the only West Indian to score a double century in his final Test According to Wisdens Steven Lynch Nurses 258 is the third highest score by a batsman in his final Test after Englishman Andy Sandhams 325 against the West Indies in 192930 and Australian Bill Ponsfords 266 against England in 1934To quit the way he did was remarkable but as Sir Garfield Sobers wrote in his 2002 book Nurse was a very proud person who always said that the West Indies would never throw him away and he would get rid of them firstFormer West Indies team manager Dr Rudi Webster who opened the bowling for Warwickshire against the WI in 1966 and watched him score a matchwinning hundred in a 50over game told me yesterday that Nurse was a delightful person a good friend and a wonderful human being He didnt forget outstanding batsman and slip fielder That said at the heart of Nurses contribution to WI cricket should be his role in inspiring other players from the Caribbean Indeed Seymour MacDonald Nurse was hero who helped produce heroes And that is truly a legacy that lives on forevermiddays group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the 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