Christiani, Stayers Pass Away

West Indies cricket fans are mourning deaths the Robert Christiani and Charlie Stayers, two players who appeared in 26 Tests between them.

Christiani, who died in Toronto, Canada, was 85. Stayers passed away at the age of 67 in Britain. Both players represented Guyana and the West Indies in careers that spanned several decades.

Christiani, a right-handed opener known as "Sugarfoot," played 22 Tests for Caribbean side, scoring 896 runs at an average of 26.35. He scored 99 on debut in the first Test of the 1947/48 series against England in Barbados. His only Test century, 107 against India in 1948, came in the first ever Test match between the two sides.

He averaged 40.50 in 88 first class matches, scoring 5,103 runs with a highest score of 181.

Christiani, who wore glasses and began his Test career at a low-order batsman, came from a well-known cricketing family in Guyana. His older brother, Cyril, played four Tests in the 1930s. Two other brothers, Harry and Ernest, played first class cricket for then British Guiana.

Christiani's death comes just a day after West Indies fans learnt of the passing of Charlie Stayers, a seam bowling all-rounder who played four Tests for the regional side in the 1961/62 home series against India.

Born Sven Conrad Stayers in 1937, he played 17 first class games for British Guiana and Bombay in India, scoring 485 runs with a top-score of 120.

He cracked into the West Indies side in 1962 and played in four Tests alongside the likes of all-time greats Conrad Hunte, Rohan Kanhai, Garry Sobers, Frank Worrell, Lance Gibbs and Wes Hall.

His career ended prematurely at the age of 26.