ANDY Ganteaume, the former West Indies and Trinidad & Tobago wicketkeeper-batsman, has died at the age of 95.He passed away on Wednesday in Santa Margarita, St Augustine, T&T. Ganteaume was West Indies’ oldest living Test cricketer, and the world’s second oldest, behind South Africa’s Lindsay Tuckett.
Ganteaume scored 112 on Test debut against England in 1948, but never played for West Indies again. He had added 173 for the first wicket with George Carew, who had hit a century of his own, in the first innings of that drawn match at the Queen’s Park Oval.
Ganteaume did not get a chance to bat in the second innings and therefore became the only player to finish with a batting average of over 100.
Ganteaume, however, had a longer first-class run – 50 first-class matches over 23 seasons making 2 785 runs, including five centuries, at 34.81 – playing as often as his work in the Trinidad Civil Service would allow.
Having had no formal coaching, he made his first-class debut for Trinidad a few weeks after his 20th birthday in 1941 and, batting at No. 8, stroked 87. In 1957, he toured England with West Indies but did not make the playing XI for any of the Tests.
It is said he paid as much for his anti-establishment attitude in an era when white players still dominated the region’s cricket, as for slow scoring in his only Test. Jeff Stollmeyer, West Indies’ regular opener, whose injury had allowed Ganteaume to debut, said later: “Andy’s innings in its later stages was not in keeping with the state of the game. His captain was forced to send a message out to him to get on with it.
Ganteaume had also been a regular member of Trinidad’s football team. After his playing career, Ganteaume served as a selector and West Indies’ team manager.
The WICB had lauded Ganteaume’s contribution to the game when he turned 95 last month. “We salute Andy Ganteaume, one of the patriots of our great game,” WICB president Dave Cameron