text: andy ganteaume andrew " andy " gordon ganteaume ( 22 january 1921 – 17 february 2016 ) was a trinidadian cricketer who played one test match for the west indies in 1948 as a batsman . he scored 112 in his only test innings , which left him with the highest test batting average in history . ganteaume played for trinidad from a young age and was chosen to play in a test match against england following his good batting form in 1948 . however , his slow scoring probably cost him his place and he never played another test , although he toured england with the west indies in 1957 . at the time of his death , ganteaume was the oldest surviving west indies test cricketer . early life ganteaume was born in belmont , port of spain , trinidad and tobago . he had no formal cricket coaching but made his first - class debut for trinidad as a wicketkeeper in 1941 as a 19 - year - old . he scored 87 batting at number eight . over the next few seasons , ganteaume played regularly for trinidad in first - class competition and for north trinidad in a non - first - class island competition . he also played football for the trinidad team around this time , but his time for sport was restricted by his career in the civil service . from batting in the middle - order , ganteaume was eventually promoted to open the batting as a theory at the time suggested that might make good openers as they became accustomed to the conditions while keeping wicket ; ganteaume neither believed this theory nor enjoyed being an opener . he scored his maiden first - class century in 1946 ; a second followed later in the year . test match call - up in the 1947 – 48 season , the england cricket team toured the west indies . when the team played in trinidad , ganteaume scored 101 and 47 not out in the first match but journalists criticised him for scoring slowly in easy batting conditions . in a second match against the touring side , he scored 5 and 90 but was not selected in the team for the test match which followed — ganteaume later suggested his non - selection was a result of his underprivileged background . however , an injury to jeff stollmeyer , one of the west indies ' opening batsmen , before the game meant that ganteaume was called up into the side . england batted first to score 362 , but when the west indies batted , ganteaume and his opening partner , george carew shared a partnership of 173 . once more , ganteaume was criticised for slow batting , although he later suggested that he had concentrated on scoring singles to allow his in - form partner to face the bowling . on the third day , he carried on batting to reach his century , the first in a test match by a trinidadian in trinidad . the innings took around 270 minutes , but he slowed down as he neared three - figures , and the west indies ' captain sent out a note asking the batsmen to score faster . other batsmen also batted slowly , and ganteaume later claimed that england used negative , run - saving tactics to slow the scoring rate . he did not bat in the second innings , when the west indies needed to score runs quickly in an unsuccessful attempt to win the game . the match was drawn , having been earlier interrupted by rain which cut the playing time , but in the knowledge that quick scoring was vital , ganteaume 's slow batting adversely affected the west indies ' chances of victory . ganteaume did not play in the next test match — he was replaced by john goddard who came into the team as part of a pre - arranged scheme to rotate the captaincy . he was chosen in a preliminary 24 - man squad to tour india and pakistan in 1948 – 49 , but did not make the final selection of 16 players , and was overlooked for the 1950 tour of england . he continued to play irregularly for trinidad in the following years , but played no further representative cricket until 1957 . later career ganteaume was selected to tour england with the west indies team in 1957 at the age of 36 . he played 19 first - class matches on the tour and scored 800 runs at an average of 27 . 58 . he passed fifty in seven innings , with a top - score of 92 against glamorgan . norman preston , the editor of wisden cricketers ' almanack , suggested neither ganteaume nor any of the other three specialist opening batsmen in the team " came up to expectations " , forcing frank worrell to open the batting . he never came close to selection for a test match . after the tour , ganteaume played just twice more for trinidad in first - class cricket , and ended his career with 2 , 785 first - class runs at an average of 34 . 81 and five centuries . having played just one test innings , ganteaume was left with a test batting average of 112 . this is higher than that of donald bradman , who has the highest average of those to play more than 20 innings in a test career . as of 2013 , his average is the highest by a former player to have appeared in a solitary test in their career . there are several possible reasons why ganteaume played no further test cricket after his single match . apart from the slow pace of his batting during that hundred — goddard later suggested that it would have been better for ganteaume 's career to score a rapid 60 than a slow hundred — west indies ' batting was strong at the time and there was plenty of competition for places in the team . even so , his team - mate and later west indies captain jeff stollmeyer suggested that he was unlucky to be left out of subsequent teams . it is also possible that ganteaume was affected by his attitude to authority . the cricket journalist martin williamson suggests : " ganteaume probably paid as much for his anti - establishment attitude as for slow scoring . he was certainly not someone who was going to bow and scrape to the white players who still dominated the region 's cricket . " in later years , ganteaume served as a test selector and was west indies manager in 1973 – 74 . in 2007 , his autobiography , my story : the other side of the coin was published , in which he criticised the west indies " establishment " of his playing days . he died at the age of 95 on 17 february 2016 . at the time of his death he was the oldest surviving west indies test cricketer , and the second oldest in the world .