There is no
parallel in world cricket to the saga of the four Ws – Worrell, Weekes and
Walcott of the West Indies. These great Barbados batsmen were born, remarkably,
within a radius of three miles in a span of 18 months. They made their Test
debut in the same series against England in 1947-48, which the West Indies won
2-0, and all three were knighted at various stages.
Frank Worrell
was a calm, stylish strokeplayer, left-arm medium-pace swing bowler, and first
coloured captain of the West Indies, rated among the great leaders, a true
statesman of the game. Of his highest Test score of 261 against England at
Trent Bridge in 1950, 239 runs were scored in a day. England were handed a 3-1
drubbing on home turf. Indeed Worrell sculpted six of his nine Test hundreds
off the English bowlers in five different series at home and away, once
carrying his bat for an unbeaten 191.
Worrrell became
the only batsman in first-class cricket to be associated in two partnerships of
500 or more, both unbroken for the fourth wicket representing Barbados against
Trinidad. In 1943-44, at 19 years the youngest to score a triple century, an
unbeaten 308, he put on 502 with John Goddard. Two seasons later, he raised 574
with Clyde Walcott. Worrell was the odd man out among the three Ws in missing
out on a Test average of 50. He came within touching distance, finishing at
49.48 per innings for his 3860 runs in 51 Tests.
The 1960-61
series in Australia, when Worrell took over the captaincy, was one of the most
thrilling in history, not just for the first tied Test at Brisbane, but also
for the competitiveness and wonderful spirit in which it was played. The West
Indies lost 1-2, but were accorded a memorable farewell in an open motorcade. From
here on, all series between Australia and the West Indies came to be played for
the Frank Worrell Trophy. In 1963 his team gave a 3-1 thrashing to England,
finally ending the hegemony of the two founder members of the Imperial Cricket
Conference. Worrell’s untimely death in 1967, just after a memorable
post-retirement tour to India, some of which comprised delightful moments in
the commentary box, came as a rude shock to cricket lovers all over the world.
The diminutive
Everton Weekes was a scintillating strokeplayer, quick on his feet and
particularly strong on the off-side. He scored hundreds in five consecutive
Test innings, beginning with the fourth and final match of his first series, as
he hit up 141 against England at Kingston in 1947-48. Then during the tour to
India in 1948-49, Weekes scored 128 at Delhi, 194 at Bombay, and a century in
each innings - 162 and 101 - at Calcutta. In his next outing at Madras, he was
run out for 90, the West Indies winning the only Test that produced a result in
the series. For good measure, Weekes scored 56 and 48 in the final Test, back
at the Brabourne Stadium. He set the pattern as the West Indies won the toss in
all five matches and batted first on easy-paced wickets. The bulk of the
bowling was done by the spin twins, left-armer Vinoo Mankad and off-spin
exponent Ghulam Ahmed, with one medium-pacer of some quality being Dattu
Phadkar. It was, nevertheless, a triumph of concentration, patience and
brilliant strokeplay, as Weekes logged up 779 runs in the series at an average
of 111.28.
When it was the
turn of the Indians to make a return tour of the Caribbean islands four years
later, Weekes was just as severe on their hapless bowlers. By now leg-spinner
Subhash Gupte had joined Mankad. Again the West Indies triumphed 1-0, with the
lone win coming at Bridgetown. Weekes scored 207 at Port of Spain, 47 and 15 in
the relatively low-scoring game at Bridgetown, 161 and 55 not out again at Port
of Spain, 86 at Georgetown, and 109 and 36 at Kingston. That was a total of 716
runs at 102.28 per innings.
Weekes scored
three centuries in the 1955-56 series in New Zealand. But, like Neil Harvey, he
did not replicate such successes when confronted by the stronger attack of
England, as also Australia, never scoring more than one century in any series
against them. On his first tour of England in 1950, though, in first-class
matches Weekes scored a triple century and four double centuries. Only Bradman
had six scores of 200 or more on an English tour two decades earlier. In 48
Tests Weekes scored 4455 runs at an average of 58.61, notching up 15 hundreds.
Big and strong,
Clyde Walcott was a savage hitter, renowned for his back-foot driving. C.L.R.
James noted in his Beyond a Boundary:
“For defence and power in putting away the length ball this is one of the
greatest of all batsmen. Only Bradman can be mentioned in the same breath for
commanding hooking of fast bowlers.” Like Weekes, he revelled on the Indian
tour of 1948-49, cracking 452 runs at an average of 75.33. His greatest run,
however, was when Australia came calling in 1954-55. Walcott hit a century in
each innings of not one, but two Tests - 126 and 110 at Port of Spain, and 155
and 110 at Kingston. No one else has achieved this feat in the same series.
Before that he had scored 108 in another Test at Kingston. Not even Bradman had
managed five hundreds in the same rubber. Walcott’s tally in that series was
827 at 82.70 per innings. This capped his consistent showing at home; during
the previous two seasons he was a prolific scorer against England and India.
Along with
Weekes, he feasted on the Indian bowling. Not to be left out, Worrell finally
joined the party with his 237 at Kingston in 1952-53. Walcott eventually
finished with 3798 runs at an average of 56.68 in 44 Tests, matching Weekes’ 15
tons, and his wicketkeeping abilities were a bonus. One of the reasons why he
retired in 1959 at the age of thirty-three was that, as the celebrated C.L.R.
James noted in his Beyond a Boundary,
he was frustrated at the continued appointment of only a white man as captain
of the West Indies. So when his great mate Frank Worrell eventually led the
West Indies shortly thereafter, the big hitter would have been a satisfied, if
not totally contented, man. That feeling would have grown when Walcott himself
went on to become president of the West Indies Cricket Board and chairman of
the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Overall, Worrell stood up to England, the best
side for much of the 1950s before his own team turned the tables; Weekes was
the scourge of India; and Walcott was awesome on home turf. Put together, they
appeared in 143 Tests for the West Indies and amassed 12,113 runs at an average
of 54.80, notching up 39 hundreds. For those times when much less Test cricket
was played than at present, it was a phenomenal performance. Few chapters in
the game are as romantic and colourful. It was the three inimitable Ws, aided
by the spin twins Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine who put Caribbean cricket on
the high road to the summit that later outfits led by Gary Sobers, Clive Lloyd
and Vivian Richards scaled in the next three decades. George Headley was, of
course, the pioneer, and the enormously talented Learie Constantine with his
fellow speedster Manny Martindale had shown early glimpses of the fearsome pace
battery that was to follow. But it was Worrell, Weekes and Walcott who set the
trend for top-class West Indies line-ups of succeeding generations - Hunte,
Kanhai, Butcher, Sobers and Nurse; Lloyd, Rowe and Kallicharran; Greenidge,
Haynes and Richards; Richardson, Lara and Chanderpaul to carry forward the
tradition. The Ws propelled West Indies cricket towards glory, and that is
their true contribution.
(Author
Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).
Don’s
Century
Published in India by Sporting Links
ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0
Fully illustrated
Paperback French Fold 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
188 pages
Available at an attractive price on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859
