“Seymour Nurse: A real West Indies class act and scourge of New Zealand”

Dec 08, 2013 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft
With West Indies trying hard to regain semblance and respect at being Test cricketers in New Zealand, after that debilitating thrashing received in India in its last two Tests, thoughts might wander to that distant, tumultuous tour by West Indies to NZ; 1979/80.
At least, Darren Bravo is doing his best!

After West Indies, including me, defeated Australia for the first time ever in Australia, we then, normal back then, proceeded to NZ.
What a tour that turned out to be.  Expect reflections on that 1979/80 tour later.
But this is about a West Indies batting icon who performed brilliantly on another such tour to NZ, in 1968/9, a year before I had even played Youth cricket for Guyana.
Seymour Mc Donald Nurse has just achieved another massive milestone, celebrating his 80th birthday last November 10.  That tour to New Zealand 1968/9 was his last.
Batsmen Nurse and (Sir) Everton Weekes, and fast bowler Charlie Griffith were, still are, my most favorite cricketers, anywhere, of all time.  I had come, as a ten year old, to fully appreciate international cricket generally; West Indies cricket specifically; with West Indies tour to England 1963.
I liked Grif’s outright aggression as a fast bowler and Nursey’s poise and elegance.
Having never seen Sir Everton bat “live”, his always positive persona, unbelievable historical statistics and sharing of a name, have made him my hero too.
So, no-one would ever understand my great pleasure and fortune when, for my Test debut; v Pakistan 1976/7, Barbados; the person overseeing preparations of pitch and ground at Kensington Oval was Seymour Nurse.
Additionally pleasant was that Liaison Officer for West Indies in Barbados back then was Charlie Griffith.
As a Guyana and West Indies fast bowler, I always sought Grif’s council, which was always given with encouragement and frank, honest assessment.
1398 runs; 279 runs per day; 39 wickets occurred in those five glorious, fluctuating days of Test cricket, West Indies just staving off Imran Khan and Mustaq Mohammed, and defeat, by a miraculous last session batting resilience by fast bowler Andy Roberts and yours truly.
With seven wickets in the game and saving West Indies from defeat with the bat, I had arrived, I guess.
Also, Kensington Oval pitch, circa 1977, was noted to be the best cricket pitch in the world then.
Seymour had done a masterful job as head ground curator!
In my cricket and life, that all-encompassing respect for these men continue.  I still address them as “Mr. Nurse”, “Mr. Griffith” and “Sir Everton”.

Anyway, in a time when West Indies had only one home or away Test series per year, Nurse played only 29 Tests; 2523 runs; two double centuries, four additional centuries, average 47.60.  Overall; 141 First Class matches; 9489 runs, average 43.93.
By today’s standards, he is nearly genius.  In 1968/9, he was considered that too, a classical batting genius!
After jumping over the fence, as I could not afford entrance fees, I first saw Nurse bat at Bourda in 1968, opening with Stephen Camacho for WI v England, 5th Test, a game WI had to win to draw that series.
That Nurse opened batting at all is exactly about his greatness, flexibility and adaptability as a batsman, since West Indies’ middle order included Rohan Kanhai, (Sir) Garfield Sobers, Clive Lloyd and Basil Butcher.
Nurse needed to find his niche, as he had batted from No. 6 up to No. 1.
His first ball received, 2nd innings, 1968 Test, a bouncer from that tremendous fast bowler, John Snow, was top-edged, from a slow-reaction hook shoot, into Regent Street for six!
Nurse was eventually out for 49, LBW to Snow.  I went home immediately, satisfied that I had seen the most classical batsman ever, more so than Carl Hooper or Australia’s Mark Waugh.  I still think so!
England drew that game; 206-9 chasing 308 to win; but winning that series 2-1.
With middling scores of 25, 16, 22, 74, 03, 17, 05, 40, 09, 137 in 5 Tests v Australia 1968/9, Nurse decided, knowing that this was his last international tour; quitting for personal, family and business reasons; to produce his best in the accompanying tour to New Zealand.
His scores for three Tests, with the series drawn 1-1:  95, 168, 21, 16, 258, the last his best Test score ever.
Unlike present-day West Indies, whose Coach Ottis Gibson and main wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin have complained about geographical and temperature changes of moving from the heat of India to the cold of New Zealand, Nurse had no such problem moving from even hotter Australia to NZ.
Sometimes you have to wonder who is really representing West Indies these days at cricket.  As shown by Nurse and others, international cricket tours are about adaptation and resilience.
Former West Indies captains both, opener Desmond Haynes and middle-order batsman Hooper, have been likened to Nurse as batsmen.  Haynes admitted that he patterned his style after Seymour.
But if you combined Haynes’ achieved excellence and Hooper’s underwhelming returns, given his ease of batsmanship, they could not compare to Seymour Mc Donald Nurse, a real class act!  Enjoy!

 

 

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