Norman Marshall dies aged 83

Former West Indian allrounder Norman Marshall, who was in the unusual company of cricketers who have represented two regional teams and played just one Test, died suddenly at his residence in Hastings, Christ Church on Saturday.

Marshall was 83 and led an active life, deep-sea fishing and playing tennis regularly through to his last days.

He was a miserly offspinner and an attacking middle-order batsman, who scored 1337 runs at an average of 30.38 with two hundreds, and claimed 90 wickets at 31.72 runs in 33 first-class matches between 1941 and 1956. Of those, 27 were for his native Barbados and four for Trinidad in 1954 and 1955, while working there.

He played his only Test against Australia at Guyana in 1955 at the age of 31, three months after his previous first-class match. Notification of his selection came after he returned from a fishing trip and, in a low-scoring match won by Australia; he was dismissed for 0 and 8. But his figures - 46.3-22-62-2 - were indicative of his tight bowling.

His elder brother Roy, who died in 1992, was a dashing opening batsman who toured England in 1950 and Australia and New Zealand in 1951-52, appearing in four Tests, before joining Hampshire for whom he scored over 30,000 runs in 18 seasons before he retired in 1972.

Norman joined Wanderers Club in 1939 on leaving Foundation School and subsequently played a lot of cricket in Peru and Venezuela. On his return to Barbados, he turned out for Wanderers in the Intermediate division into his mid-50s.