by Kalyanbrata Bhattacharyya
Seymour Nurse was as good a batsman from the West Indies as the most illustrious from the islands. Born in the same year as Basil Butcher, he had to vie with luminaries like Frank Worrell, Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Conrad Hunte, Joe Solomon, newcomers like Clive Lloyd and David Holford, and of course Butcher, for a permanent place in the Test side.
Nurse was a Bajan. He was born in Saint Michael on 10 November 1933 to a humble background. His father was a carpenter, and he was the youngest in a family of four children. At school, he excelled in cricket and soccer but a nagging foot injury put paid to his ambition of dribbling and dodging the ball. Thereafter his father persuaded him to carry on with the cricket bat. He once advised his son, ‘Stay in cricket and quit football, otherwise you are on your own. Football in Barbados is too rough.’
He joined the Bay Street Boy’s Club which boasted players like Sobers and Hunte. He progressed steadily and soon participated in the Barbados Cricket Association Competition after joining the famous Empire Cricket Club.
Here, he was fortunate to be admitted to the affections of the legendary Everton Weeks. Weekes became his mentor. According to Wisden: ‘Weekes made him into a First-class cricketer, a batsman able to get a line on the ball to know precisely where to hit it’.
Into the big league
Nurse made his debut in First-class cricket against Jamaica at Sabina Park in 1958 at the age of 25. He got 21 and 35, the latter the highest score in the second innings in which Barbados were dismissed for 90.
In the next match against Jamaica at the same venue the following year, he scored 128 not out. He impressed one and all with a stroke-filled 213 not out against Peter May’s touring England team in 1959-60 at Kensington Oval, sharing a 306 run partnership with Sobers. Wisden recorded, ‘Nurse, a promising young batsman, and the established Sobers, shared a third-wicket stand of 306 and paved the way for the highest score ever made by a Colony side against MCC.’
Nurse’s entry into First-class cricket and the subsequent journey was riddled with a multitude of complexities. The double century against England, however, earned him a place in the third Test at Jamaica on the 17 February 1960 when Worrell injured his ankle. Incidentally, Nurse found the only bat in his possession broken and strapped with leucoplast, and one gentleman, McDonald Bailey, lent him a bat named Perfect. [However, there is some controversy regarding this issue and one source quotes that the bat was actually offered by Trevor Bailey, the former England all-rounder.]
He went out to bat when Easton McMorris, the opening batsman from Jamaica, was hit on the chest by a bouncer from Brian Statham and had to retire hurt with a contused lung. Nurse executed a cover drive to the boundary off the bowling of Statham in the very first ball he faced. He scored 70 before being caught by Mike Smith in the deep off Ray Illingworth, trying to hit out of the ground. Later, he was to rue: ‘Inexperience got the better of me. I could have had an easy hundred, but that is life’
However, it seems that 70 in his debut test match was not enough to cement his place in a team that boasted of the greats of the 1950s and ‘60s. He was dropped for the next Test and Clyde Walcott was recalled.
Nurse was selected for the historic tour to Australia in 1960-61 but struggled in the initial matches and was not a success in the three Test matches he played. Additionally, he injured his ankle and ended the tour on crutches.
After this tour, he joined Ramsbottom in the Lancashire League.
He played his next Test match against India in the 4th match at Port of Spain in 1962, famed for Polly Umrigar’s all-round performance and Salim Durani’s belligerent century in the second innings. Following this he toured England in 1963.
However, once again a series of injuries, a recurrent feature in his career, kept him out of the side. His inability to play for the West Indies was further compounded by the feeling of the West Indies selectors that ‘Nurse had a temperament not really suitable to the rigours of international cricket’.
During the subsequent visit of Australia to the West Indies in 1965, he was asked to open with Conrad Hunte at Sabina Park, a position he hardly ever enjoyed. His performance was rather indifferent. He got the chance to bat in his preferred middle order at Bridgetown, Barbados, and scored his first test century, an innings stretching to 201. Bill Lawry and Bobby Simpson of Australia also got double centuries and this is one of the only two Test matches where three double centuries were scored in the history of Test cricket. That apart, the score of 201 runs by Nurse and Simpson remains the highest identical score by two batsmen from two sides in Test cricket, to date.
Best Days
However, Nurse’s moment of glory arrived in 1966 when the West Indies toured England. He left his newly born twin daughters and was constantly reminded of them while on tour. Regardless, he piled up 501 runs at an average of 62.62 in the series, second only to Sobers who played superbly throughout. He was thoroughly consistent and his string of runs—49, 64 and 35, 93 and 53, 137, 0 and 70—attest his domination in that series.
The third Test was played at Trent Bridge. Wisden wrote, ‘The Nottinghamshire groundsman must be congratulated on preparing a fast true pitch which encouraged the pace bowlers, especially in the early stages of the match.’ Nurse scored 93 under trying circumstances and this innings has been talked about as the most majestic innings played in that series. Wisden further described it as, ‘… a fine display on a fast and true pitch which encouraged fast bowlers... What a delight it was to witness the power and fluency of his strokes when things did go right... During the tour, he had established himself in the eyes of the English followers as a stroke-maker fit to line up with credit beside the likes of George Headley, Frank Worrell, and Everton Weekes... For the first time he had played throughout a Test series, and in the process hit 501 runs, second only to his illustrious captain, Garfield Sobers. What more could any cricketer ask? ... He may have got himself out at times by going for runs too soon but what a delight it was to witness the power and fluency of his strokes when things did go right.’
Nurse was selected as one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year in 1967.
After Conrad Hunte retired following the West Indies tour to India in 1966-67, Nurse was asked to fill in the void of the slot of the opening batsman. After scoring 41 and 42 at Port of Spain against the visiting England team, led by Colin Cowdrey in 1968, he was pushed down the order and scored a superb 136, batting one down at Port of Spain in the eventful fourth Test match. West Indies lost the Test though, after the magnanimous, but somewhat controversial, declaration by Sobers.
Dream swansong
Some cricketers hang their boots when others think it’s premature. Others continue till they are overlooked by the selectors. This reminds one of Maurice Leyland, the Yorkshire, and England batsman, who once said that one should retire at a time when others should be questioning why’, rather than asking, ‘why not’?
Nurse certainly belonged to the first category. His exit from international cricket was simply amazing. His last tour was to Australia and New Zealand in 1968-69. In Australia, he struggled initially against the guile of John Gleeson and the swing and craft of Graham McKenzie, but in the final Test at Sydney he scored 137. During this series, he was peeved for various reasons and told the West Indies Cricket Board that he no longer wished to be a member of the West Indies team. In fact, he told captain Sobers, ‘…the West Indies will never throw me away; rather, I will get rid of them first’. Sobers tried to persuade him, feeling that he still had a few years of cricket left in him but Nurse was adamant and irreconcilable.
In New Zealand, he scored 95 and 168 in the first Test at Auckland, announced his retirement, and signed off with 258 at Christchurch in the third and his final Test of the sereis. His score of 558 runs at an average of 111.60 is still a record for the highest average for a cricketer in his last series and his 258 remains the highest score in one’s last Test innings as well.
Thus, Nurse remains the only Test cricketer till date whose first and last centuries were double centuries. It will not be out of place to recall that Andy Sandham of England and Bill Ponsford of Australia scored 325 and 266 respectively in their last Test match at The Oval in 1929 and in 1934, respectively, and were thus ahead of Nurse. But those were scored in their first innings and both of them had to bat again in the second innings. Travis Basevi and George Binoy, cricket correspondents, wrote a wonderful article on him following his retirement which was captioned, ‘Gloriously walking into the sunset’.
After retiring from Test cricket, Nurse continued to play for Barbados till 1972.
India, particularly Calcutta, got to see Nurse first in April, 1964. He played for EW Swanton’s XI against an Indian XI in the sultry and humid atmosphere, scoring 106 and 135 not out. Though Sobers scored 123 in the first innings, one sports correspondent succinctly wrote that if Sobers had charmed the spectators, Nurse galvanized them.
He was a gifted close-in fielder, particularly in the slips, and a more than a useful off-spin bowler.
Sobers called his premature retirement from international cricket, ‘a waste’ and he also wrote that deep down somewhere Nurse was proud of himself. However, this is what Nurse said about himself, ‘My aim was always to play for Barbados and the West Indies, and having achieved this I was satisfied. Life has been good, and I must say I'm happy, I played for my people and they showed me great respect.’
One shortcoming in his batting was his impetuosity and poor shot selection at times and more often than not, his dismissal owed rash and indiscrete strokes.
The career and thereafter
After retirement from First-class cricket, Nurse took to coaching young talents in Barbados, and some of his illustrious pupils include Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Carlisle Best, Sherwin Campbell, Pedro Collins, and perhaps most importantly, Desmond Haynes. He served as the manager of Barbados as well as the West Indies Under-19 side, the head coach of the Barbados National Sports Council and eventually, was appointed as a member of the Barbados Cricket Association Board. The West Indies Cricket Association celebrated his 80th birthday in 2013. The President of the West Indian Cricket Control Board, Mr. Don Cameron, said, ‘In his playing days he was a champion batsman in the West Indies team and played with class and elegance. He remains an avid supporter of the game, and it is always great to see him sitting, watching and analyzing the game at Kensington Oval.’
Nurse breathed his last on the 6 May 2019 after a course of protracted illness. He was 85. The funeral memorial was attended by among others, Sir Garfield Sobers, Wesley Hall, and Charlie Griffith. Desmond Haynes, the former opening batsman, wrote in a moving tribute, ‘My coach, my mentor, we all ... 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. .. The way he'd lean back to cut the ball and end up standing by the square leg umpire, the way he'd always get off the mark with a leg glance ...He was super and stylish... May he rest in peace and rise in glory.’
Nurse played in 29 Tests and scored 2523 runs, with 6 centuries and an average of 47.60. In 141 First-class matches spanning from 1958 to 1972, he scored 9489 runs at an average of 43.93 runs, with 26 centuries.
Like Basil Butcher, his erstwhile West Indian team-mate, he was a victim of his time and circumstances. He was born at a time when the West Indies cricket team was loaded with an extraordinarily talented bunch of batsmen and it was no easy task to find a place among his great contemporaries.
However, Nurse will always be remembered as one who fought against all odds, proved himself, and left the scene with his head and bat held high. Very few cricketers left the cricket ground in such a blaze of glory.