Constantly under the sword

Certainly, this will surprise many: Nyron Asgarali was, in my opinion, one of the best batsmen Trinidad & Tobago have produced but he was not given the opportunities he deserved early enough. If he had, the false perception that he could not make runs at the Queen's Park Oval would not have been formed.

Nyron, who passed away last Sunday at the age of 85, never played in both matches of a two-match tournament between his debut in 1941 and 1948. He scored 33 run out in his first innings in 1941, answering a bad call from Gerry Gomez, already a West Indies player, and he was dropped.

Ben Sealy, who had toured England in 1933 and aged 40 or 41 years was one of the players brought in for the next match. So much for looking to the future. On another occasion, Nyron was again run out, at 49 by a direct throw from backward-point and was promptly omitted.

In the Trinidad & Tobago trials for the England visit in 1948, he made two hundreds and still was not selected for either of the two matches preceding the Test match. Instead, Denis Atkinson of Barbados, who had not very long before become resident in Trinidad and was one of the Establishment, was preferred. He came consigned to the Trinidad & Tobago team as it were. Nyron was a quite useful medium-pace bowler and possessed a flat and accurate throw from distance. I have always remembered OS Coppins, the foremost sports journalist in Barbados, describing him as the best "short-of-a-length bowler he had ever seen".

In 1949, when West Indies were in India, a Trinidad & Tobago team went to Barbados and at long last Nyron played in both matches. From then on, he scored amply up to the end of his career. I have always thought that in the earlier part of his career, whenever he played, it was a matter of crisis for him, thinking that if he did not make a big score he would not get another chance as some others would have been given.

I also think that if a player is thought to have the potential to hold a regular place in a team, he must deserve a second chance if he fails in his first effort. About this I am sure: a mind-set on anything makes one see only what one expects and wants to see, regardless of what actually takes place.

And I have told people that they were there when Nyron got close to making three consecutive centuries at the Oval, but they still did not see it! In the end I will enumerate his scores to make my point about perception.

I particularly remember Nyron's 141 not out in the second innings on the last day of the match in Guyana in 1953. Gerry Gomez declared soon after he made his second century in the match. Guyana made 62 for 3 in the remaining time. Was there sufficient time to reasonably contemplate getting the required ten wickets to win? I thought not but rather that Nyron could have been allowed the chance to go for a double-century.

I was also reminded of a somewhat similar instance in Barbados where Jeff Stollmeyer declared after lunch on the last day with Rupert Tang Choon on 95. I must also mention Nyron's unbeaten double-century for his club Invincible against my club Maple. He was on the field throughout the match. Playing against Invincible was always a big challenge. They had a spin attack - SM Ali and Sydney Jagbir, a left-arm spinner. They spun remarkably. Syd also used the new ball at medium-pace quite effectively and could bat also, sometimes opening the innings.

He was first selected to play for Trinidad & Tobago in Guyana in 1934. Although he never left the country or stopped playing, the next time he played for Trinidad and Tobago was when England came to the West Indies in 1948 and then in 1951 in the trials in Barbados for the tour to Australia! SM Ali went out of the game at regional level after his experience in Barbados but continued playing for Invincible and then Maple.

Nyron has the rare distinction, along with Gerry Gomez, of captaining both North and South in the Beaumont Cup matches, as well as Trinidad & Tobago. Also notable is his century, 131, on his debut as captain versus Pakistan in 1958.

With the exception of one season when he played for Maple and scored a century in the local first-class competition final, which we won at the Queen's Park Oval, Nyron succeeded Norman Sookram, the first captain of his club Invincible and his mentor, until he took the job of welfare officer at Caroni 1975 Limited, Brechin Castle. He led the company's sponsored team, Wanderers, to two championship wins.

As a good number of us did after our playing days Nyron maintained his interest in the game and served as a Trinidad and Tobago team manager and selector and liaison officer for visiting Test teams. In recognition of his contribution, he was presented with a 20-year service plaque by the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board. He was also awarded National honours, the Humming Bird Medal Silver, and he is an inductee of the First Citizesns Trinidad and Tobago Hall of Fame.