Ganteaume still at the wicket
The Cinderella man of West Indies cricket is now approaching the nervous nineties. This iconic sportsman is still cheerful and chirpy and remembers his historic 1948 after-Carnival innings.
Andy Ganteaume, the oldest surviving West Indian Test cricketer, quietly celebrated his 89th birthday on January 22 at his home in the Santa Margarita hills, St Augustine, with its magnificent view of the Caroni plains.
Andrew Gordon Ganteaume is part of the intriguing folklore of the gentleman’s game: he is the cinderella man of West Indian cricket, scoring a century in his only innings against the England at the Queen’s Park Oval 62 years ago- and never to be selected to play another Test match.
That memorable innings in the First Test, which was played immediately after the 1948 carnival celebrations, beginning on Ash Wednesday, February 11 , ending on February 16, is told in some detail in Andy’s biography, My Story, The Other Side of The Coin, which was published in 2007.
Over the years, there has been the typical Trinidadian mauvais langue about an innings which has given him a batting average superior to that of Don Bradman.
People who were not even at the Oval to see the match confidently assert that it was one of the slowest innings ever and this was the reason for his not being selected again for the West Indies.
“Someone asked me and the fellow is not even a cricketer, how many singles I made in my century”, Andy related.
“I told him 99”.
Actually, he scored his 112 in 270 minutes, an average scoring rate, and hit 13 fours.
This belied talk that he scored slowly.
Ganteaume, a short wicket keeper batsman who played locally for Maple, was in the West Indies squad, at the age of 36, for the forgettable 1957 tour of England, but was not selected to play in any match.
Ganteaume continued playing for several more years.
A charming, convivial man, played with or against some of the great West Indian players- George Headley, Everton Weekes, Frank Worrell, Clyde Walcott, Jeffrey Stollmeyer, Allan Rae, Norman Marshall, Alfie Valentine, Sonny Ramadhin, Gary Sobers, Wes Hall, Rohan Kanhai, Bruce Paraideau, Robert Christiani, J. K.Holt Jr et al.
Worrell was at the crease with him when he made his century on February 13, 1948.
Andy also represented Trinidad and Tobago in football with fellow internationals, Jeffrey Stollmeyer and Gerry Gomez also in the team.
Andy, a man of mixed ancestry (his maternal grandfather was the child of indentured East Indian sugar workers), remains cheerful and philosophical about his strangely abbreviated Test career.