KINGSTOWN: Former West Indies batsman Seymour Nurse died on Monday after a long illness. Nurse, 85, played 29 Tests between 1960 and 1969.
Desmond Haynes, the former West Indies and Barbados opening batsman, shared the news via a Facebook post. “My coach my mentor, we all from the holders hill area love this man, we used to walk like Seymour bat like him and try to talk like him. Thanks for everything you have done for me. May he Rest In Peace and rise in glory,” Haynes wrote.
A middle-order batsman from Barbados, Nurse made his Test debut against England in 1960 and scored 70 and 11 but untimely injuries in Australia in 1960 and England in 1963 did not help. It was not until the 1966 West Indies tour of England that Nurse established himself in the side. In that series, he scored 501 runs in five Tests, including four fifties and a hundred. Following this performance, he was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1967.
Nurse finished his Test career with a magnificent 258 – his highest Test score – against New Zealand in Christchurch. In all, he scored 2,523 runs at an average of 47.60 with six centuries and ten fifties.
In 141 first-class matches, Nurse amassed 9,489 runs at 43.93 with the help of 26 hundreds. An excellent close-in fielder, he took 116 catches, and also played six List-A games, scoring 246 runs, including a hundred and a fifty.
After his retirement, he served as a Barbados selector and a team manager, and was also a long-standing coach at the Barbados National Sports Council.
Nurse is survived by his twin daughters.