BYPASSED by the Barbados selectors despite topscoring in the country’s last 50-over regional cricket match, Martin Nurse will now vie for selection on the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) team.
The prolific hard-hitting left-handed opener is among 29 cricketers who will take part in a 50-over CCC trial match at the 3Ws Oval, from 9:30 a.m. today.
Nurse, 25, made 46 off 63 balls with four fours and two sixes in the semi-final of the President’s Cup in Guyana last year when Barbados lost to eventual champions Trinidad and Tobago.
He was also one of the five Cave Shepherd Cricketers Of The Year last season when he scored 1 044 runs and took 27 wickets with his slippery fast-medium pace.
He is the only batsman since Collis King to score two double centuries in the Division 1 competition and the only player in many decades to score a double century and grab two five-wicket hauls in the same match. Nurse has six other Division 1 hundreds and two in the 50-over format.
Overlooked
The powerfully built Nurse, whose general fitness has been questioned in some quarters even though he regularly opens both batting and bowling in the Division 1 competition, was also overlooked for the recent WICB Twenty20.
A look at his List A (regional One-Day), 2010 LIME Division 1 and Sagicor Super Cup statistics will show that he has performed better than another left-handed opener, Jason Haynes, who has been preferred in every format.
In 17 matches Nurse has scored 519 runs at an average of 30.52 with three half-centuries. Haynes has 258 runs in 11 matches at an average of 25.80 with a solitary half-century.
In two Sagicor Cup innings this year, Nurse made 51 and 46 while Haynes scored 34 and 51. Prior to the start of the eighth series of Division 1 matches, Nurse had scored 491 runs (avg: 49.10), while Haynes has amassed 386 runs (avg: 38.60). Both have played seven matches and posted a century.
CCC trial teams:
Omar Phillips (captain), Martin Nurse, Simon Jackson, Nekoli Parris, Raymon Reifer, Chadwick Walton, Shakoya Thomas, Marlon Johnson, Marlon Richards, Marques Clarke, Shervon Penco, Kavesh Kantasingh, Gilford Moore, Ryan Wiggins.
Romel Currency (captain), Miles Bascombe, Clint St. Hill, Kjorn Ottley, Esra Green, Liam Sebastian, Collis Worrell, BarringtonYearwood, Boris Hutchinson, Ulric Batson, Simon Naitram, Mario Miller, Ryan Austin Stefan Gooding, Jamal Smith.