Nyron Asgarali dies at 85

Nyron Asgarali, the former West Indies batsman, has died at the age of 85, just seven weeks short of his 86th birthday. Asgarali, who was getting ready to go out with his family on Saturday, fell and hit his head and was taken to the hospital where he passed away just after midday on Sunday.

In 1957 Asgarali played two Tests for the West Indies against England. One, at Lord's where he opened with Rohan Kanhai, but was out lbw to Fred Trueman for a duck in his debut innings and then scored 26 before Trueman caught him, this time off the bowling of Wardle. In the other Test, at The Oval, he opened first with Frank Worrell and scored 29, then with Kanhai again and scored 7.

He did not play in any other Tests, but played 50 first-class games in a career that lasted over 20 years. He had come to attention in inter-colonial matches against British Guiana in 1952, where he was impressive with his solid defence and scored 103, 128 and 83 in successive games.

He became an administrator on the Trinidad Cricket Council and managed the Trinidad and Tobago Shell Shield teams in 1983. He also served as liaison officer to the visiting Australia, New Zealand and England teams during the period from 1984 to 1986.

Andy Ganteaume, his close friend and former West Indies batsman, arrived at the hospital within minutes of his death and said it was a great loss as Nyron had not been ill despite his advanced years.

"He'd had a little shakiness on account of developing Parkinson's," he said, "but he was getting ready to go out, so he was not under the weather." It was speculated that he might have had a heart attack that caused him to lose consciousness and to fall.

He leaves to mourn his wife, Sylvia, and his children, Noble, Jeffrey, Herman, Gregory, Dawn, Deanne Garcia and Lilleth Khan. His funeral will be held on Thursday at the Trinity Cathedral in Trinidad.