deliveries death_date columns catches/stumpings year birth_date bowling tenfor country death_place club fivefor batting image caption fullname birth_place column source date runs wickets s/s matches article_title
balls 2,187 22 august 1946 1 14 / -- 1901/02 -- 1904/05 2011 31 january 1878 right-arm medium 3 west indies saint michael , barbados british guiana 5 right-handed tommieburton.jpg tommie burton in 1906 william thomas burton st michael , barbados first-class http://www.cricketarchive.com/archive/players/23/23355/23355.html cricketarchive 1878 1 31 yes 161 57 -- / -- 10 tommie burton

tommie burton

william thomas burton -lrb- 31 january 1878 in black rock , st michael , barbados -- 22 august 1946 , st michael , barbados -rrb- was a coloured west indian cricketer best known as a member of the 1900 and 1906 west indian tourists to england .
he is generally known as tommie burton .
he was the son of a black mother and a white father .
he was brought up in barbados and served for some years there as a practice bowler and in trial matches .
realising that his colour and roots would severely limit his opportunities in barbados he emigrated to british guiana in 1899 where there were more chances for coloured cricketers .
even in british guiana his role as a practice bolwer resulted in him being classed as a professional and hence excluded from the inter-colonial tournament .
he sufficiently impressed in british guiana to be selected for the 1900 tour to england even though he had not played a single important match .
he was described before the tour as `` probably the best bowler in the west indies , using his head to great advantage .
hard hitting , run-getting bat '' .
on the tour he was second in the bowling averages marginally behind float woods and leading wicket taker with 78 .
he had one good innings of 64 * against the gentlemen of the m.c.c. but otherwise his batting was disappointing .
compared to woods he was `` generally thought in england to be the better bowler of the two .
his length was always excellent , and he possessed more finesse and head work than the trinidad bowler .
he sent down a good yorker , and it was with this ball that he twice had the honour of bowling w.g. though woods headed him by the merest fraction in the bowling analyses , it was pretty generally admitted that burton on the whole accomplished the best work '' .
as noted above his batting was of limited use , scoring 291 runs at an average of 11.64 .
his innings of 64 * against the gentlemen of the m.c.c. included a 9th wicket stand of 162 in 65 minutes with lebrun constantine .
he took 5 wickets in an innings 8 times during the tour .
the highlight was in the last match against norfolk when he was unplayable and took 8 -- 9 in 10.4 overs including a spell of 5 -- 0 in 5 overs .
with woods , who took 2 -- 22 in 10 overs , they bowled unchanged and dismissed the county for just 32 .
in the match against gloucestershire when gilbert jessop scored 157 in an hour , burton was injured and did n't bowl during jessop 's innings .
returning from the tour he was selected for the combined west indies team in all three of their matches against ra bennett 's team in 1901 -- 02 as well as playing in the two british guiana matches against the tourists .
he took 10 wickets in 3 of these 5 matches .
his next important matches were against lord brackley 's team in 1904 -- 05 when he took 15 wickets in the two british guiana matches and 5 wickets for the combined west indies team .
he was selected for the 1906 tour to england but played in only 2 first class matches .
before the tour started he was described as `` the best professional bowler in the west indies ; can also bat a little '' and `` a professional who is a fine right hand medium pace bowler with plenty of break and a deceptive flight '' .
he left the tour early .
no reason for this is given in contemporary publications but it is reported that his tour `` ended in acrimony when he was sent home after refusing to carry out menial duties for white members of the side . ''
the coloured members of the team were expected to perform menial tasks like oiling bats and cleaning boots for the white members of the team .
burton refused to perform these tasks and refusing to apologise he was sent home .
the issue seems to have been hushed up since in 1913 the editor of ` cricket ' remarks that `` for some reason unknown to me , was dropped after the first few matches '' .
this ended his cricket career which had consisted of just 10 first class matches in which he took 57 wickets at an average of 15 .
he was not as fast a bowler as float woods or archie cumberbatch but was certainly more accurate and used a clever variation of pace .
to get employment he had to emigrate to panama where he worked as a sanitary inspector for 40 years .
he deliberately returned to barbados for his final days .
