Elias Constantine (22 May 1912 – 22 May 2003) was a Trinidadian
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er who played
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...
for
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
between 1932 and 1949. He was the younger brother of
Learie Constantine
Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, (21 September 19011 July 1971) was a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black pe ...
, who represented West Indies in
Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
; his father
Lebrun and uncle
Victor Pascall also played representative cricket for West Indies and Trinidad.
Biography
Constantine's father, Lebrun, was the grandchild of slaves,
[ who rose to the position of overseer on a cocoa estate in Cascade, near ]Maraval
Maraval is one of the northern suburbs of Trinidad's capital, Port of Spain, a valley in northern Trinidad in Trinidad and Tobago. It is situated at the bottom of the hills of Paramin and located east of the Diego Martin valley to which it is conn ...
, where the family lived when Elias was born.[Howat, p. 26.] Lebrun was famous on the island as a cricketer who represented Trinidad in first-class cricket and toured England twice with a West Indian team.[Mason, pp. 2–3.][Howat, p. 23.] Constantine's mother, Anaise Pascall, was the daughter of slaves;.[Mason, p. 3.] Constantine grew up with his family in Cascade on the estates for which his father was overseer. The family were generally happy and frequently practised cricket together under the supervision of Lebrun and Victor Pascall.
By 1932, Constantine had followed his relations into the Trinidad cricket team. He made his first-class debut against Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
on 16 January in the Inter-Colonial Tournament
The Inter-Colonial Tournament was the main first class cricket competition in the West Indies held between 1892-93 and 1938-39.
Competing teams
* Barbados
* British Guiana
* Trinidad
In the early tournaments British Guiana were sometimes r ...
, and scored 30 in his only innings. He later bowled 11 wicketless overs in a comfortable Trinidad win. According to his obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
, "he was so quick in the field that his team-mates reputedly congratulated him when he dropped a catch on his Trinidad debut, because no one else could have got close." In the following game, the final of the tournament, Constantine scored 92 not out
In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress.
Occurrence
At least one batter is not out at t ...
and took his first two wickets in first-class cricket as Trinidad won the competition.[
As matches in the West Indies were limited, Constantine played just once in each of the following two seasons, achieving nothing of note.][ In the following season, he played in one of the matches against the ]Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...
which was touring West Indies. For the only time, he played a first-class match with his brother Learie. They opened the bowling together when their team fielded. When Trinidad batted, they were reduced to 42 for six before the brothers came together and added 93 runs, of which Elias made 37. The match was eventually drawn.[ During the Trinidad Test match, played shortly afterwards, Constantine was chosen as twelfth man purely because of his reputation as an outstanding fielder.][ In the first 11 years of his career, he only twice passed fifty in a first-class match, and he bowled infrequently.][ Even so, Learie Constantine hoped that Elias would be chosen for the 1939 West Indies tour of England. Elias even paid his own expenses to travel to the trial matches in Trinidad, but was not selected for them and he did not make the tour. In the mid-1930s, Constantine joined his brother in playing English league cricket; he appeared for ]Rochdale Cricket Club
Rochdale Cricket Club are an English cricket team from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, currently playing in the Lancashire League. Until 2015 they played in the Central Lancashire League, being one of the oldest - and most successful - of all the ...
in the Central Lancashire Cricket League
The Central Lancashire Cricket League (CLCL) was a fifteen team cricket league, traditionally based in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was then based in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. The league ran competitions at First T ...
, playing as an all-rounder
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...
.[Mason, p. 43.]
Constantine did not play any first-class cricket between 1936 and 1939.[ His best performance came in 1944, when he scored his only first-class hundred; he hit 139 runs against ]British Guiana
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.
The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...
, hitting five sixes.[ He continued to play for Trinidad until 1949; all but one of his first-class games were played for Trinidad. In total, he scored 895 runs at an average of 27.12 and took 24 wickets with his medium-paced bowling.][ He died in Trinidad on his 91st birthday on 22 May 2003.][
]
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Constantine, Elias
1912 births
2003 deaths
Trinidad and Tobago cricketers
Cricketers from Port of Spain