Brendan Nash

Brendan Nash (33) made history in December 2008, when he became the first white man to play Test cricket for the West Indies since Geoff Greenidge in the early 1970s. The left-hand batsman and handy left-arm medium-pacer was born in Perth, after his father Paul – a former Jamaican Olympic swimmer – and mother Andrea moved to Western Australia.

He grew up in Queensland and went on to represent the state team stamping himself as a first-class player hitting 157 against South Australia and 96 in the Pura Cup final win over Tasmania in 2001/02. The following season, he belted 176 against New South Wales before a form slump disrupted his progress. He fought back to earn Bulls' contract status and was a regular performer without nailing a permanent place. Nash played five Pura Cup games in 2005/06 and picked up the third century of his career with 107 at the WACA. After being used only three times in 2006/07, he was not offered a contract and decided to try his luck in Jamaica.

He had a strong first campaign, which finished with him scoring a match-winning century in the Carib Challenge final, and after barely 12 months in the Caribbean he was called into the West Indies squad for the ODI tri-series in Canada and made his debut against Bermuda in August 2008. 4 ODI's later, he gained selection for the West Indies Test Squad to tour New Zealand in December. He took his first Test wicket in the third Test against England, dismissing Matt Prior, then in the fifth Test, he scored his maiden Test century, an innings of 109 sharing a 234-run fifth wicket partnership with Chanderpaul.

Nash was appointed West Indies vice-captain in October 2010 and celebrated by hitting 160 runs at 53.33 in a series that took him past 1,000 Test runs. His form continued into the Caribbean regional first-class tournament in 2010/11, where he was the third highest run-scorer, hitting 626 runs at 62.60, including his maiden first-class double century (207). Nash then featured in three further Tests for the Windies – 2 against Pakistan and 1 against India before losing not only the vice captaincy, but his place in the side.

Despite his loss in form, Nash vouches to return to the fold and is seeking an opportunity to play County cricket for the 2012 summer. He has enjoyed considerable success in England, having played eight seasons league cricket since 1998, when he racked up over 1,300 runs for Welsh Club Lamphey in addition to representing Glamorgan 2nd XI. The following season he played for Todmorden in the Lancashire League scoring an outstanding 1200 league runs at 57.1 (including a highest score of 176*). He also took 40 league wickets at 23.4 apiece. He has since played for Central Lancashire League side Werneth (2000), Bromley (2002/04), Monton and Weaste (2008) and most recently two seasons (2009-10) in the Lancashire League with East Lancs. The best of these seasons was in 2009 when he was without doubt the stand-out overseas all-rounder hitting 914 runs at 65.28 then taking 50 wickets at 12.36, including four 5-wicket hauls.