West Indies great and last of the famous great ‘ three Ws’, Sir Everton Weekes passed away at the age of 95 in his home in Christ Church, Barbados. He formed a formidable batting unit along with Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Frank Worrell in the early West Indies team.
Weekes made his debut for the West Indies in 1948 and went on to play 48 Tests, scoring 4455 runs at an average of 58.61 with 15 centuries and a best of 207. He also made 12010 runs in 152 FC matches with a best of 304* and 36 centuries.
The great man scored five centuries in five Test innings, a record that still stands and no one has even come closer to beating it. He passed 1000 Test runs in 12 innings - one fewer than Sir Don Bradman; nobody has reached the milestone quicker than Weekes.
In 1952-53 he averaged 102.28 in the series against India and was equally dominant in New Zealand in 1955-56 in a Test series in which he made three successive centuries and averaged 83.60.
He went onto have a successful career as a coach and then as a match referee after retiring prematurely at the age of 33 due to a persistent injury.
The whole cricket fraternity was mournful at the loss of one of the greatest batsman to ever grace the cricket field and shared their condolences and tributes on Twitter.
Here are some tweets:
