12:03pm Thursday 8th January 2009
A decade ago, left-handed batsman Brendan Nash featured for Lamphey in the top flight of the Pembroke Cricket League.
You could be forgiven for thinking that’s no big deal — but incredibly, ten years later, Nash has been selected for the West Indies Test squad currently on tour in New Zealand — now that’s a big deal.
It’s an amazing story. In 1998 he played in the Lamphey team that lost to Haverfordwest in the Harrison-Allen Bowl final.
Lamphey can now boast the fact that two West Indian cricketers have played for them. Firstly, quick-bowler Vasper Drakes and now Brendan Nash.
But since those hazy long gone days, Nash’s career has taken an unusual route into international cricket.
Nash’s parents — his father, a swimmer who represented Jamaica in the Olympics, and his mother, an accomplished dancer — emigrated from the Caribbean to western Australia just two months before he was born.
Nash was brought up in the tough school of Australian club and state cricket.
In fact, he made one Test appearance as a substitute for Australia in Brisbane in 2005. Now he is seizing his opportunity in New Zealand.
Nash played for Queensland and at his peak scored 176 against New South Wales.
However, after not getting regular games with Queensland, he bravely opted to chance his arm in Jamaica.
Nash won his first West Indies cap against Bermuda in Toronto in August, and has played five matches for them, all in 50-over-a-side internationals.
The 31-year-old has averaged a respectable 38.00 after four innings, and has taken five wickets with his medium pace.
On-form Nash gave West Indian selectors almost no option not to select him after a match-winning century in the Carib Challenge final after his first season in Jamaica.
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