Esmond Seymour Maurice Kentish (21 November 1916 – 10 June 2011) was a

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

international

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 in two

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) ...

from

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

. He was born in Cornwall Mountain, Westmoreland,

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, and attended

Cornwall College The Cornwall College Group (TCCG; kw, Kolji Kernow) is a further education college situated on eight sites throughout Cornwall and Devon, England, United Kingdom, with its head office in St Austell. Campuses There are eight campuses within ...

Montego Bay Montego Bay is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth-largest urban area in the country by population, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Por ...

,.''

Wisden ''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 ...

'' 1957, pp. 293–94. and Mico Teachers' Training College in Kingston. He was Deputy Governor of the Bank of Jamaica.

Cricket career

Kentish made his Test debut in the fourth Test of the West Indies vs England series in the 1947/48 season. He had match bowling figures of 3–106 as the West Indies won by ten wickets. He didn't play Test cricket again for the West Indies until the first Test of the West Indies vs England series in the 1953/54 season. He went wicketless in England's first innings, but took 5–49 in their second as the West Indies won by 140 runs. Later he went to

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

to study at St John's College. He played 14 matches for

in 1956, taking 44 wickets at an average of 25.77. At 39, he was the oldest player to play in the

University Match The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. From 2001, as part of the reorganisation of first-class cricket, ...

Death

Kentish died on 10 June 2011 aged 94. At the time he was the oldest living West Indian Test cricketer, and the fourth oldest Test cricketer from any country.

References

External links

* 1916 births 2011 deaths West Indies Test cricketers Jamaican cricketers Oxford University cricketers Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Jamaica cricketers People from Westmoreland Parish Cornwall College, Jamaica alumni {{WestIndies-cricket-bio-stub