The middle of the previous century was the era of the three Ws of West Indies cricket — Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Everton Weekes and Sir Clyde Walcott. Imagine a team where the three Ws came one after another in the batting order; Walcott with a Test batting average of 56.69, Weekes with an average of 58.61 and Worrell with a career average of 49.48. However, 1 July 2020 saw the last of the Ws, as Everton Weekes left for his heavenly abode at the age of 95 years.

The romance of the story of the Ws is perhaps never-ending and for the statistically-inclined it would be rather strange to note that they lived their lives for a duration which was in the same order as their Test batting averages. While Weekes with the highest batting average among the three lived to be 95, Walcott lived to be only 80 and Worrell only 42 at the fall of his life’s wicket.

The story of Everton Weekes may not be one from rags-to-riches but definitely one from rags to immortality. The three Ws flourished in an age when the colour of the skin had many related consequences, so Everton suffered from two major disadvantages; he was poor and he was black. Added to that was yet another drawback of the period in which Everton was growing as a youngster; 1939 to 1945 was the period of the Second World War when all sporting events were pushed to the back seats.

When Everton finally did get a break to represent the West Indies, he had a rather dismal start to his International career and may have been dropped for the fourth and final Test against England but for an injury to George Headley, the latter also known as the Black Bradman due to his exceptional achievements with the bat (career Test average of 60.83). Thereafter, there was no looking back for Everton as he scored his maiden Test century in that match. In fact, he became the fastest man to score 1,000 runs in Test cricket when he achieved the landmark in only his twelfth innings, one better than Bradman. The legendary Sir Donald Bradman is often considered as the benchmark for all batting greatness but even he could not reach the landmark so fast.

Ironically, it was the tour of India that put Everton’s career in top gear. With a century already in his bag in the last innings before the Indian tour, Everton scored four more centuries in consecutive innings against India to set a new record of centuries in five consecutive Test innings — a record that stands till date. The record may have been a little longer but for a controversial run-out decision when Everton was on 90 in the sixth consecutive innings.

Everton was named so by his father after an English Football Club and his full name, Everton De Courcy Weekes, shows a French influence, as well. His early years were spent playing both football and cricket, but it was in cricket that he got a favourable break. Everton Weekes went on to become one of the hardest hitting batsmen with the talent to play with ease on both sides of the wicket. Although Everton continued to play first class cricket till 1964, his international career had a premature end in 1958 due to a persistent thigh injury.

As this great batman bids his final adieu to his fans, there is no doubt that he will always be remembered for his furious batting performance. In fact, among the all-time ten batsmen with the highest career batting average, Everton stands at the eighth position. The ten names include four from England, three from the West Indies, two from Australia and one from South Africa.

However, there shall always be one rider to remembering Everton Weekes. For enthusiastic cricket fans, so embroiled have been the names of the three Ws, that it would always be difficult to remember any one of them in seclusion. They will always be remembered as one of the three Ws.

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Can you think of a Test cricketer who created a world record in Test cricket even before he had faced a single delivery or bowled a single ball? Well, meet Rahkeem Rashawn Shane Cornwall; the heaviest ever player to take a Test cricket field. With a body weight of 140 kg., matched with a height of 6’5”, Rahkeem is bound to be a psychological threat for any batsman. Our generation has seen some cricketers of repute like Arjuna Ranatunga and Colin Milburn who weighed heavy on the scales but Rahkeem Cornwall is almost beyond compare.

While there is little doubt that Rahkeem has the talent to be an international cricketing star, the derogatory part of his heavy build is that he lacks the agility which is of utmost importance in modern day international cricket. So as things stand today, the West Indies Cricket Board is more involved in trying to improve Cornwall’s physical fitness than working on his cricket acumen.

With just one Test under his belt against the Indian team, Rahkeem has a long way to go to prove his cricketing worth at the international level but if coming events cast their shadows before, then we may as well presume that this giant cricketer will soon be a threat to batsmen around the world. Cornwall has already proved his endurance by bowling the maximum number of overs for his team in both the innings against India and in India’s first innings was the most successful bowler after Holder with a bag of three wickets.

For obvious reasons, Rahkeen does not have a very impressive T20 career but his First Class record speaks volumes about his bowling talent. With 263 wickets in 56 matches at an average of 24.29 a piece, Rahkeem’s bowling credentials are well established. What is heartening is that in 95 innings, he has bagged five or more wickets in an innings on 17 occasions with the best ever analysis of 8 for 108.

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Many of us witnessed the incredible win of the West Indies. What were our thoughts when we saw that in the last over, the West Indies batsmen had to make nineteen runs to win?

According to data available almost everybody thought it was impossible.

England won! West Indies defeated! Good try, but alas what a wasted effort! These were some of the exclamations and titles newspaper sports writers had already coined as they began to write their sports stories. I wonder, though, what Brathwaite thought as he looked at the scoreboard and saw he had to hit nineteen runs to win.

Did he shake his head, smile at his partner at the other end of the pitch and tell him it was an impossible task? His partner walked up to him, and told him to just take a single and that he Samuels would try and hit the impossible.
Even his partner didn’t believe he was capable of winning the match.

But he did! He hit four successive sixes, and made history!

When all the others, the spectators, his opponents, his team and even his partner saw the impossible he saw the positive; in his mind’s eye, he felt his bat cracking four balls over the boundary. He heard the joyous roar of the crowd, even before the magical shots were struck!

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Riding high on 9 wins from the last 10 Twenty-20 matches, India beat Bangladesh in Bangladesh, in the final of the Asia Cup, to lift the title for the record sixth time and entered the sixth edition of the World T20 as the favourites. And on 31 March 2016 India were out of the race for the World T20 after losing to West Indies in the semi-final. That’s how fickle the game of cricket, and notably the 20-over format, is. Playing against Australia earlier this year, the Men in Blue fought back hard after losing the 5-match ODI series 4-1, and dominated the hosts in the three T20 matches. The linchpin of the Indian batting line-up Virat Kohli earned the Man of the Series award. India was No. 8 in the ICC T20 rankings when this series started and by the time they whitewashed Australia, they found themselves at the top of the table.

Soon after returning home, India played three T20 matches against Sri Lanka where they won two and lost one. Then the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, for the first time in history, was revised to T20, keeping in mind the upcoming T20 World Cup. India won five matches on the trot to bring home the trophy.

And then came the biggest event of the year — ICC World T20. India was in the Group 2 with formidable teams like Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Three teams — India, Australia and South Africa were on the minds of almost all cricket experts when asked to predict the final four of the tournament.

On 15 March India had a disastrous start against New Zealand in Nagpur. New Zealand had a new captain in Kane Williamson since their former captain and one of the most destructive batsmen in the world, Brendon McCullum bid adieu to the game in February. Before this match, the Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar said that New Zealand lacked the X-factor in the absence of the aggressive McCullum. Williamson won the toss and opted to bat first on a turning wicket. The Indian bowlers bowled well to restrict the opposition to 126 runs for the loss of seven wickets. With India’s batting line-up being considered the best among all, this looked like a piece of cake for them. But in the fifth over of the second innings, India were four wickets down for 26 runs. India was thrashed by 47 runs in a low-scoring match. Williamson read the pitch correctly and played spinners ahead of front-line pacers, who ended up taking 9 Indian wickets. By now, India had met New Zealand five times in T20 Internationals and had lost all five matches.

From here on, even one more loss in the group stage could make it extremely difficult for India to reach the semi-finals, as their Net Run Rate was beyond repair. India’s next match was the most anticipated match against arch rivals Pakistan. In this particular contest, there was more pressure on India because they had lost their first match. On the other hand, Pakistan had won their first match convincingly against Bangladesh.

It looked like an easy win for India with the Indian bowlers on top of their game and Pakistan had a total of 118 runs losing 5 wickets. But the Indian openers failed. Kohli came again to the rescue with Yuvraj Singh. India won by 6 wickets with 13 deliveries left and Kohli was adjudged the Man of the Match for his unbeaten 55 runs off 37 balls. India’s win-loss record against Pakistan in all World Cup matches was now showing 11- 0, with 6 wins in ODIs and 5 in T20Is.

On March 23 in Bengaluru, Bangladesh decided to chase and were looking for their first win of the tournament after losing to Pakistan and Australia. India lost seven wickets to score 146 runs in 20 overs. Bangladesh batsmen moved towards the target steadily as India dropped four catches. It was down to 17 needed off 12 balls when Jasprit Bumrah did a fantastic job giving away just 6 runs, which meant Bangladesh required 11 from the final over with four wickets in hand. Hardik Pandya conceded a single off the first ball followed by two consecutive fours from Mushfiqur Rahim’s willow which silenced the fans in the stadium. Two to win from three balls. Rahim went for a big hit and was caught at deep mid-wicket. Two to win from two balls. Mahmudullah went for a big hit and was caught at deep mid-wicket. Last ball, Bangladesh still needed two runs. New batsman Shuvagata Hom swung his bat and missed and immediately set off for a bye. Dhoni collected the ball and ran in to break the stumps… and India had pulled off a miracle. India won by one run.

Last match of Group 2 was in Mohali India vs. Australia. Both teams had two wins from three matches and the winner was to enter semi-finals. The Aussies elected to bat first and set a target of 161 for India. Dhoni continued with the same playing eleven in all matches despite some players failing again and again. Indian openers continued with their dismal performances and Kohli stepped up once again and brought India back in the game with help from Yuvraj who was struggling with an injured left foot. When Dhoni walked in, India required 67 from 36; and they achieved the target with 5 balls to spare. India won by 6 wickets and was the only Asian team to qualify for semis. Virat Kohli (82 not out off 51) played one of the best knocks ever and picked up another Man of the Match award. A major concern for India was that their batting line-up was heavily dependent on Kohli.

India had one of the most devastating matches in Mumbai on March 31 when Darren Sammy won the crucial toss and put India into bat. An opening partnership of 62 runs between Rohit and Rahane put India in a good position. And the go-to guy Virat Kohli was in the form of his life. He faced 47 deliveries to score 89 runs and remained not out. India’s scorecard at the end of 1st innings read 192-2. Every Indian fan’s only worry was Chris Gayle who had the potential to win matches single-handedly for his team. And every Indian fan celebrated as if India had won the match when the ball left Jasprit Bumrah’s hand to crash into Gayle’s off-stump. He scored 4 runs. But Indian bowlers struggled because of the due. Everyone was going for runs and the big-hitting by West Indian batsmen helped them chase the target in the last over and they were in the World T20 final for the second time. Lendl Simmons was the Man of the Match for his unbeaten 81 off 50 balls. He was caught twice when the bowlers over-stepped the popping crease, and was again caught at the boundary when the fielder stepped on the rope.

West Indies went on to defeat England in a thrilling final and became the first team to lift the World T20 trophy for the second time. Virat Kohli was named the Man of the Tournament for scoring 273 runs in 5 innings at an incredible average of 136.50. India had a good tournament and they entertained not just the Indian fans, but everyone across the world. The inaugural World T20 champions were now to wait another four years to have a second shot at the trophy.

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