Windies cricket celebrate Seymour Nurse's birthday

Bridgetown (Barbados), Nov 11 (IANS/CMC) The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) sent special birthday greetings to one of the best batsmen to represent the regional team, Seymour Nurse.

Nurse, the prolific Barbados and West Indies batsman from the 1960s, celebrated his 80th birthday Sunday – making him one of the oldest surviving West Indies cricketers.

Nurse was a classy right-handed middle-order batsman who played 29 Test matches. He made 2,523 runs and averaged 47.6 runs per innings. He made six centuries including a best of 258 in his final Test innings in New Zealand in 1969.

“Today is special day for Seymour Nurse and we want to join with all the fans across the Caribbean and the cricket world in wishing him a special 80th birthday. In his playing days he was a champion batsman in the West Indies team and played with class and elegance,” WICB President Dave Cameron said Sunday.

“He remains an avid supporter of the game and it is always great to see him sitting, watching and analysing the game at Kensington Oval. We salute this great man, we wish him a great day and hope he lives to see many more.”

Nurse is among an elite list of West Indian batsmen who made over 500 runs in a Test series on two occasions. He made his Test debut against England in Jamaica in 1960 and was named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year in 1967.

After retiring from the game Nurse was a long-standing coach in Barbados – and played a role in the development of several Test players including Malcolm Marshall, Roland Holder, Carlisle Best, Sherwin Campbell, Pedro Collins and Dwayne Smith.

He was also manager of the West Indies Under-19 Team and the Barbados senior team.

–IANS/CMC

bs/vt