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Did you admire Desmond Haynes, who was one part of the great Greenidge-Haynes alliance in West Indies cricket? Were you also awestruck by the giant efforts of “Big Bird” Joel Garner? If so, there’s a Nurse to thank – Seymour, 85, the former Test batsman, who passed away in Barbados on Monday.

The late Tony Cozier, the late encyclopaedic pundit of West Indies cricket, told his readers in (not long after Haynes smashed off deliveries in an ODI against Australia after which he earned the nickname, “Hammer Haynes”) that Haynes, then nine, made his way to Kensington Oval in Barbados and watched Nurse peel off a double hundred off Australia in

There were a lot of runs scored in that Test – double hundreds by Australian openers Bill Lawry and captain Bob Simpson, a hundred by Bob Cowper and three-figure knocks from the blades of Rohan Kanhai and Nurse.

But Haynes returned home inspired and Cozier observed by that Haynes had, “vivid traces of the captivating Nurse style” through his shots to mid-wicket, the late flick of the wrists and the straight drive.

It 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 head.”

Garner is another Barbadian who probably wouldn’t have made it to the international stage had it not been for S.M.

Nurse. Garner had scored some runs for Foundation School’s second XI and when Nurse became his school’s 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, what’s a big fellow like you doing batting or trying to bat?

“You’re too big to be a batsman.

West indies map Desmond Leo Haynes born 15 February is a former Barbadian cricketer and cricket coach who played for the West Indies cricket team between and He was a member of the squads which won the Cricket World Cup as well as finishing as runners-up at the Cricket World Cup. Haynes favoured a more measured approach to batting and scored 7, runs in Test matches at an average of He is one of the few Test batsman to have been dismissed handled the ball , falling in this fashion against India on 24 November He is also one of the few players to have scored a century on an ODI debut.

With your height son, you should be bowling…fast.”

Within a decade, after being fine-tuned by Wes Hall and Sir Garfield Sobers, Garner made his Shell Shield debut for Barbados against Combined Islands in

“I 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 Garner.

As 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 home series against Australia and, as cricket writer Clayton Goodwin reckoned, Nurse was the “soul” of Sobers’ team in England. This is manifest in the fact that Nurse scored runs in five Tests. His lone century came at Leeds, where West Indies won by an innings and 55 runs, but his 93 in a total of was just as valuable, if not more, at Nottingham, where the tourists won by runs despite a run first innings deficit.

Nurse played two Tests in India during the series.

He missed the opening Test in Mumbai, due to a finger injury, and Clive Lloyd was drafted into the playing XI half an hour before play commenced at Brabourne Stadium.

He 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 ticket-related 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 – “A six through extra-cover is a rarity and Nurse has achieved it off Bedi,” said the caption to the Nurse photograph published in Sport & Pastime magazine.

The home series against England turned out to be another successful one for Nurse – runs during the five-Test series in which he was asked to open - but not as run-heavy as the tour to New Zealand, against whom he amassed runs in three Tests.

He is believed to have sent his resignation to the West Indies board during the tour and Nurse went down in history as the only West Indian to score a double century in his final Test.

West indies vs sri lanka Desmond Haynes grew up playing cricket with friends around his neighbourhood of Holders Hill. Right from this early age it was evident that Haynes had an eye for the ball. At school he swiftly proved himself at cricket and was soon playing regionally. In the competitive cricket world that exists in Barbados, Haynes was pushed to excel and in , at the young age of just 20 years old, Haynes was playing for Barbados. But it was in that Haynes catapulted himself into the cricket annals of time.

According to Wisden’s Steven Lynch, Nurse’s is the third highest score by a batsman in his final Test after Englishman Andy Sandham’s against the West Indies in and Australian Bill Ponsford’s against England in

To quit the way he did was remarkable but, as Sir Garfield Sobers wrote in his 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 first”.

Former West Indies team manager, Dr.

Rudi Webster, who opened the bowling for Warwickshire against the West Indies in and watched him score a match-winning hundred in a over game, told me that Nurse was, “a delightful person, a good friend and a wonderful human being”. He didn’t forget “outstanding batsman and slip fielder”. That said, at the heart of Nurse’s contribution to West Indies 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 forever.

Source: Mid-Day Newspaper, Pakistan