By Neto Baptiste
Former fast bowler and the first Antiguan to represent the senior West Indies cricket team, Sir Andy Roberts, has suggested that the planned school of excellence programme be named in honour of Sir Everton Weekes.
The West Indies batting legend, after a few months of battling with an ailment, died at his Christ Church, Barbados home at around noon on June 1.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Sir Andy believes the regional governing body should find a way to honour his contributions to cricket.
“We was the best of the three Ws and I think that West Indies may only have three or four better batsmen that you could call in Sir Viv, Sir Gary, Brian Lara and maybe George Headley. You have the Viv Richards trophy, the Sir Garfield Sobers, the Wisden Trophy and all sorts of different trophies, so I don’t know what is left — maybe the school of excellence could be named after him — the school of excellence that is supposed to be set up, and it doesn’t matter where it is going to be set up,” he said.
Sir Andy, who claimed 202 wickets in 47 Tests, described Sir Everton as being extremely knowledgeable regarding the game of cricket.
“Even though he was on in age he could spot weaknesses in batsmen long before others do. If you spoke to people who were there while he was giving comments, they would tell you that Everton Weekes, when he said something, just look back and analyse what he said.”
“Over the years, we’ve had a lot of meetings with him; he was part of the Stanford legends and the wisdom that he showed in meetings that we had, a lot of us would have envied and do anything to gather some of that wisdom,” the former player said.
Although not having played alongside Sir Everton, Sir Andy said his performances speak volumes.
“My recollection of Sir Everton Weekes was from books before I actually met him because he finished long before I started my international career, and looking back at history and looking back at the records, Sir Everton had a record that a lot of great players would admire. He had five consecutive hundreds [in Tests] and then he got run out on 90 going for the sixth one and that’s something that a lot of great players would like to have in their repertoire,” he said.
Sir Everton Weekes began his international career against England on January 21, 1948, and would go on to enjoy a career spanning 48 Tests in 20 years of service to the regional side.
In that time he averaged a remarkable 58.61, scored 15 centuries and 19 half-centuries with a highest score of 207.