West Indies legend Sir Everton Weekes passes away

New Delhi: Legendary West Indies batsman Sir Everton Weekes has passed away. He was 95. He breathed his last at the Christ Church home on Wednesday in Barbados.

He made his Test debut at age 22 against England at Kensington Oval in 1948 under the captaincy of George Headley. His final match was against Pakistan in Trinidad a decade later.

In his career, Sir Everton played 48 Test matches and made 4,455 runs at an average of 58.61. This included a world record five consecutive centuries in 1948 – scores of 141 against England in Jamaica, followed by scores of 128, 194, 162 and 101 in India. In his next innings, he made 90.

His average of 58.61 runs means Sir Everton is one of two West Indies greats, along with George Headley, in the top 10 Test averages of all time. This average has been bettered by only four players in history to have scored more than 4,000 runs.

In all first-class cricket he played 152 matches and scored 12,010 runs at an average of 55.34 with a top score of 304 not out.

He was part of the famous 'Three Ws' – alongside Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Clyde Walcott. He was also a highly respected coach, a knowledgeable analyst on the game for the regional and international media, as well as a former team manager, match referee for the International Cricket Council (ICC), and a member of the ICC Hall of Fame.

Paying tribute to him, Ricky Skerritt, President of Cricket West Indies, said in a statement: "I never had the opportunity to see Sir Everton bat, but I had the opportunity to get to know him a little in his later years."

"I learned about his incredible career by reading about him and looking at old videos when I could. His performance stats were excellent as he set tremendously high standards for his time.

"Sir Everton was therefore a most amazing pioneer in West Indies cricket; a gentleman and quite simply a wonderful human being. I got to spend a couple hours with him last year just sitting at his home and talking with him, at a time when he was recovering from a serious illness."

"Sir Everton Weekes was truly one of the founding fathers of West Indies cricket excellence. May his soul rest in eternal peace," he added.