Cricket West Indies (CWI) has paid tribute to Sir Everton Weekes, the legendary West Indies batsman. He died on Wednesday at his home in Barbados.
Sir Everton was a member of the famous Three Ws – which included his other famous team-mates Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Clyde Walcott.
“He had an amazing legacy as a great cricketer and great human being. He was one of the most humble and decent persons you would have ever met. I want to take this opportunity to publicly express our deepest sympathy to the family of this remarkable gentleman, who passed away earlier today,” said Ricky Skerritt, President of CWI.
Sir Everton, who turned 95 on February 26, at one stage scored five successive Test centuries. His Test average of 58.61 is one of the highest in all cricket. In 48 Test matches, he scored 4,455 runs with 15 hundreds.
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Short, stocky but endearing, Everton Weekes, one of the three Ws, was quick-footed and possessed an admirable variety of strokes, almost all of them attacking.
His debut against England in 1947-48 was unremarkable, and he was dropped to make way for George Headley, although he was restored when Headley had to drop out. The Kingston crowd wanted John Holt instead of Weekes, and he was booed throughout the England innings.
He responded with 141, and on the tour of India which followed he scored 779 runs at 111.28 and set a world record of five successive hundreds, the highest being 194 at Bombay. It would have been six were it not for a controversial run-out decision at Madras.
In England in 1950 his rich form continued with 2310 runs at 79.65 on the trip, including a triple hundred against Cambridge, although in the Tests he made only 338 at 56.33. His form returned from superlative to good on the tour to Australia which followed, but against India at Port-of-Spain in 1952-53 he made 207 in the first Test and another big hundred on the same ground in the third Test.
He scored heavily against England in 1953-54, and in New Zealand in 1955-56 he hammered 940 runs at 104.44 in eight first-class matches. His tour of England in 1957 was blighted by poor health, and aside from a gutsy 90 on a lively Lord’s wicket, when he was struck a painful blow on the hand, he disappointed.
Against Pakistan in 1957-58 he returned to form but he was increasingly troubled by a thigh injury, and after an unsuccessful operation he decided to retire even though he was still in his early 30s.
Weekes also played in English League cricket, toured with various Commonwealth sides, coached in Barbados, was awarded the MBE and the CBE, and also served time as an ICC referee. In 1995 he was the last of the three Ws to be knighted.
