When Weekes defined an era

West Indies batting legend

Everton Weekes

, last of the famed 3Ws, passes away


Eras end. On Wednesday, the passing of Everton Weekes felt that way. He was 95, the last of the famed three Ws of the West Indies that cricket lovers of a certain vintage knew as well as their alphabets.

Frank Worrell, whose dignified leadership skills shepherded and shaped an entire generation of Caribbean cricketers, passed away in 1967.

Clyde Walcott

, an enforcer with the bat, died in 2006. The trio was born within a mile and a half of each other.

The 3Ws, all Barbadians, loomed in the collective consciousness of Indian cricket lovers like mythic figures, their willows filled with limitless powers.

Weekes was the prime agent in creating that enduring image. Few cricketers have relished Indian bowling like Weekes. During the West In-dies' 1948-49 tour of India, he hammered 128, 194, 162, 101, 90, 56 and 48. He was only 23 then. The 779 runs came at an astounding average of 111. It was the first Test tour by a visiting team to post-Independence India.

Weekes had struck 141 in his last Test against England in Jamaica before the India tour. Mihir Bose writes in A History of Indian Cricket that he was "controversially" run out for 90. Six would have been super but five tons in five innings was still a fabulous record.

Not many know that an 'Everton Weekes Testimonial' fund was started by the Sunday News of India in appreciation of the batsman's five centuries, which received huge donations from Bombay's cricket-lovers. Crowd-puller

Mushtaq Ali

, who played that series, vividly details Weekes' style of batsmanship in his autobiography, Cricket Delightful.

"Short in stature but otherwise well built, Weekes always played business-like cricket. No bowler seemed to worry him once he had adjusted his sights. He scored mercilessly, executing that elegant stroke - half cut, half drive with tremendous power and exquisite timing," he said. Ali also wrote, "Skipper Amarnath said that Weekes was as much a problem to him in the series as Bradman was in the series in Australia."

In that dreadful 1947-48 series Down Under, India's first tour abroad after the country gained freedom, Bradman amassed four centuries, including a double ton, scoring 715 runs at an average of 179. Former India captain Vijay Hazare also praised Weekes in his autobiography, Cricket Replayed.

He wrote, "Both Walcott and Weekes brought sledgehammer tactics, the former his thunderous drives off the back-foot and the latter in his hooks." Weekes 162 at

Eden Gardens

was "undoubtedly" his best innings of the 1948-49 tour, observed the Times of India in its Jan 1, 1949 match report. Ali reaffirmed, "Indeed the first innings played at Calcutta was a masterpiece in the noble art of batting with its infinite variety and oddity. With strokes that were all grace and ease, he sent the ball to all parts of the field and it flashed past the fielders like lightning, giving them not the semblance of a chance."

No surprise, former West Indies captain

Jeffrey Stollmeyer

described Weekes as "a five-foot six-inch bundle of muscle". He continued to be the scourge of Indians when they visited the West Indies three years later. This time his scores were 207, 47, 15, 161, 55 not out, 86, 109 and 36 - 716 runs for an average of 102, Bradmanesque again.

In a career embellished by 15 tons, 4,455 runs and an envy-arousing average of 58.61, Weekes scored three centuries on the trot against New Zealand too (123, 103, 156) in 1956. He was also reasonably successful against England and Australia, especially at home.

He was a much-loved figure in the dressing room. Fellow batting great Rohan Kanhai wrote in his autobiography, Blasting for Runs, that when Weekes made 197 against Pakistan in 1958 after a lean run, his success "delighted all the boys as much as if they had notched a ton themselves".

(With inputs from AFP)