Karl Nunes

Robert Karl Nunes (7 June 1894 – 23 July 1958) was a West Indian cricketer who played in West Indies' first Test in their inaugural Test tour of England as wicketkeeper and captain.

Nunes was born in Kingston, Colony of Jamaica but educated in England at Dulwich College. He toured England with the 1923 West Indian side that won 12 matches; he was vice-captain and second-string wicketkeeper, and the tour was his first taste of first-class cricket.

In the mid-1920s, he captained Jamaica in matches against Barbados, MCC and a touring side led by Lionel Tennyson. He scored two centuries against Tennyson's side, including his personal best of 200 not out. He was a leading light in the Jamaican cricket board of control from its establishment in 1926.

Having kept wicket only intermittently across his first-class career, Nunes was the main wicketkeeper on the 1928 tour in the absence of George Dewhurst, and he moved down the batting order from his customary position as an opener to bat mainly in middle order. He had limited success in the Tests, with a highest of just 37, and fared only a little better in other first-class matches, with a single century against Glamorgan.

After this tour, he played only in Jamaica, though this also included an appearance in the Kingston Test match of the England tour of 1929-30. In this match, the final game of a four-Test series, Nunes was again captain but, freed from the responsibility of wicketkeeping, opened the innings. In a theoretically timeless Test that ended as a draw after eight days, England made 849, then the highest Test score, with 325 for Andrew Sandham. Nunes top-scored with 66 in the West Indies response of 286 and then made 92 in the second innings after England did not enforce the follow-on, putting on 227 for the second wicket with George Headley, who went on to make 223. This was Nunes' last Test appearance.

He died in London at the age of 64. In June 1988 Nunes was celebrated on the $3 Jamaican stamp alongside the Barbados Cricket Buckle.

External links

• Player profile: Karl Nunes from ESPNcricinfo

References

• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1924, 1929, 1931 and 1959 editions.