THE title of last year’s autobiography by the England Test batsman Brian Luckhurst, Boot boy to President, neatly encapsulates a life of total and old-fashioned dedication to a single, revered employer. Luckhurst joined Kent County Cricket Club as a junior professional at the age of 15 in 1954, played for the county until 1976, shared in the most successful period in the club’s history and worked in various capacities until, to his great pride, he became the president in 2004.

Still in office when he died of a cancer that was not diagnosed until shortly after he had accepted the honour, he had hoped to live long enough to plant the lime tree which Kent’s committee is planning to place close to the site, inside the boundary at Canterbury, of the famous tree blown down in a gale in January.

A left-arm spinner when his promise was first spotted, Brian Luckhurst emulated Wilfred Rhodes by working his way up the order to become an opening batsman. It was just as well because, unlike Rhodes, his slow bowling never developed and he would always have been eclipsed by the far superior skills of his near contemporary for Kent, Derek Underwood. By contrast, his batting blossomed to the point that he was picked for two tours of Australia and, as Geoff Boycott’s opening partner, proved a key member of Raymond Illingworth’s Ashes-winning side in 1970-71.

He would probably have had a longer international career had he not, on his second tour, run into the formidable fast bowling partnership of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. As it was, he scored four hundreds in his 21 Tests, averaged 36 and would have had an even better record if his 408 runs in the first four matches against a mighty Rest of the World side in 1970 — in the series that replaced the cancelled tour by South Africa — had eventually counted as official Tests.

Of medium height, 5ft 9in, craggy-jawed and determined, Luckhurst scored mainly square of the wicket on either side of the wicket. He was a fierce square-cutter, quick to hook or pull, and a busy on-side accumulator. A late developer, he did not play Test cricket until he was 31 but reached 1,000 runs in his Thirteenth official match for England. Two of his four Test hundreds were scored under handicap: he made 131 against Australia at Perth with a damaged thumb and later in the series 109 at Melbourne despite sustaining a fracture to his left little finger early in the innings.

Modest, staunch, courteous and fastidious in making the most of every ounce of talent he possessed, Luckhurst was a professional of the old school. He fielded well anywhere and was loyal to his captains, both during their tenure and afterwards. Illingworth for England and Colin Cowdrey and Mike Denness for Kent especially appreciated the qualities of an exemplary team man.

His mother’s family were cricketers at Murston, near Sittingbourne, where Luckhurst was born to relatively elderly parents. It was his fortune that the Kent coach, Claude Lewis, lived at Sittingbourne and gave him the opportunity to leave Westlands Secondary School early to pursue a possible career in cricket. Whitening the boots of the senior professionals was among his early duties and he said that he knew he had arrived when his own boots were cleaned for him for the first time in readiness for his first home match for the Kent first team in 1958.

National Service in the Army intervened, however, and he struggled for success on his return to Canterbury and when he was offered only a one-season contract in 1961 he knew that it was make or break. Kent’s second-team coach, Colin Page, recommended that he should get another chance in the first eleven against Somerset at Gravesend at the end of May despite the fact that Luckhurst had been out for a pair in the previous second-team game. Batting at seven in the order he saved the side with 71 not out in the second innings and established himself. He began opening the batting in 1963 and scored at least 1,000 runs in 14 seasons before retiring in 1976 to become successively second-team coach, first-team coach, manager of the Indoor School and marketing executive.

He is survived by his first wife, Elaine, his second wife, Raye, whom he married in 1985, two sons of his first marriage and a stepson.

Brian Luckhurst, cricketer, was born on February 5, 1939. He died on March 1, 2005, aged 66.