Obituary: Gerry Gomez

One definition of a cricketing all-rounder is a player who can hold his or her place by either batting or bowling. Gerry Gomez qualified on both counts; he might also have made his way in the game as a captain, an administrator, a commentator or an umpire. He performed, it could be said, all these functions at Test match level.

He first emerged in England as an 18-year-old tourist in 1939 who could bat middle order and bowl medium-fast swing, an unusual type of bowler to develop in the sun, fresh breezes and hard pitches of the Caribbean. Twenty-five years later he would probably have become either a League professional or joined a county club, for he was an English-style player, even to the extent of playing spin, on uncovered surfaces, much better then his West Indian contemporaries.

Not that English scouts would have seen much of his bowling on that first tour - he was never given the ball - but he did score 719 runs at an average of 25. During the Second World War and immediately afterwards his reputation was enhanced by a sequence of big scores. He made an impact at home when he shared a third wicket stand of 434 with Jeffrey Stollmeyer for Trinidad against British Guiana in 1946 at Port of Spain and made an aggregate of 232 against England on their first post-war tour.

His bowling was needed in West Indies' tour of India in 1947-8, reaching 101 in the Delhi Test, the first between the two countries. Hard to believe, in those days West Indies were short of fast bowlers and Gomez, stepping up his pace, often had to take the new ball.

By 1950, the year of Ramadhin and Valentine, Gomez was firmly established as a leading Test all-rounder and, as a captain of one Test (in 1948) a member of the inner council of the team. Although he won few headlines in that historic tour, competing with some of the most charismatic cricketers of the time, he was the solid performer, Mr Dependable, 1,116 runs at an average of 42 and 55 wickets (25). He also held 32 catches and was regarded as one of the best close fielders.

The following year West Indies toured Australia in what was in effect a series to decide the world championship. West Indies lost but Gomez, then 32, was at his peak, scoring 324 Test runs (36) and 18 wickets (14) including, in scorching sunshine at Sydney, 7-55 and 3-58, moving the ball in the heat haze.

John Arlott wrote of Gomez that he was a man who, "on the few occasions when [his] colleagues failed, made good the deficiency without any great return of glory".

Gomez could not leave the game. He talked about it on radio, helped order it as a member of the Board of Control and once even stood as an umpire in a Test match when the official went sick. He will be recalled by spectators for his easy, controlled run-up and rocking motion of the head and if aficionados sometimes overlook him, when recalling the 1950 tourists, he would never have been forgotten by his captains.

Gerald Etheridge Gomez, cricketer, broadcaster, administrator: born Trinidad 10 October 1919; died 7 August 1996.