England keeper Keith Andrew dies

Keith Andrew, who died on December 27 aged 81, kept wicket twice for England in a career which spanned 14 seasons between 1953 and 1966.

Both his appearances were marked by England slumping to heavy defeats. His debut came at Brisbane in 1954-55 when Godfrey Evans, whose presence was the largely the reason Andrew played so little, was incapacitated. It was an ordeal by fire as Australia ran up over 600 and England wilted, losing the Test by an innings. His second appearance was nine years later, against West Indies, and again he kept during a 500+ innings, conceding three byes.

With other wicketkeeper-batsmen, especially John Murray, to the fore, Andrew's relative inability with the bat counted heavily against him in the minds of the selectors. Always tidy, if not spectacular, behind the stumps, he also captained Northamptonshire for five years with success, steering them to eighth, seventh, third, second and fifth places in the Championship. In 1965 he kept seven matches (900+ runs and 2132 runs) without conceding a bye.

In 390 first-class matches Andrew scored 4230 runs at 13.38 as well as taking 723 catches and making 181 stumpings.

He was made an honorary member of the MCC after retirement, and for a period was NCA director of coaching.