Former Sussex cricket pioneer and Albion title winner Denis Foreman has died at the age of 83 after a long illness.

Foreman became the first non-white South African to play first-class cricket in England when he joined Sussex in 1952.

Foreman had already played three first class matches for Western Provinces when he was spotted playing football in Cape Town by an Albion scout who offered him a contract to play in England.

On his arrival at Southampton Docks to sign for the Seagulls he was carrying three cricket bats, parting gifts from friends in Cape Town.

Concerned manager Billy Lane asked: “You do realise that we’re a football club?”

Lane needn’t have worried. Placid and popular, Foreman excelled in both sporting spheres.

Wearing the No.10 or 11 shirt as an inside or outside left, he scored 69 goals in 219 games for Albion, a decade of service which included a regular role in the 1957-58 Southern Section Championship side.

He played in 130 matches for Sussex over 15 years as a middle-order batsman, top scoring with 104 against Notts at Hove in his final season. He scored 3,277 first-class runs with his lowly average of 18 partly to do with having played in the era of uncovered pitches.

Foreman – who was eventually capped in 1966 – also took nine wickets with his off-cutters and had best figures of 4-64. He was also a safe pair of hands in the field with 124 catches.