Worrell, Weekes and Walcott: One pair of hands, three greats, three Ws

JARROD KIMBER: Worrell and Walcott are already buried at the Three Ws ground. If Weekes' family want it, there is space for him to rest beside them. From the cradle, to the crease, and back to the pavilion

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One pair of hands. That's all it took to give us three of cricket's greatest gifts. One midwife caught Frank Worrell on August 1, 1924, in Bank Hall. On the February 26, she held on to Everton Weekes in Pickwick Gap. And finally she clung to Clyde Walcott, January 17, 1926, in New Orleans.

Bank Hall, Pickwick Gap and New Orleans are all in St Michael's Parish. Also there is the Kensington Oval. There is another cricket ground there too, less famous, nestled in the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies. It's called Three Ws Oval.

The first W was Frank Worrell. A man so respected he became West Indies' first permanent black captain. At that time, South Africa would not play the West Indies. The Maori's of New Zealand were still seven years from having the Maori Affairs Amendment Act thrust on them.  Enoch Powell was still working on his racist 'Rivers of Blood' speech. And black people could not immigrate to Australia under what was known as the White Australia policy.  

And yet in that era, Worrell walked into Australia a captain, tied a Test, fought hard and when the series was over, both boards decided that all future contests between Australia and the West Indies would be for the Frank Worrell Trophy. After the final Test in Melbourne, there was a street parade for the West Indian team. Five hundred thousand people were reported to be on those streets. If it's true, that is over 25 per cent of the population. It would be a further six years before Australia would count its own indigenous people on a census. Yet the city stopped and applauded this team and the man who led them, Frank Worrell.

The second W is Everton Weekes. You could start and finish with the fact Weekes would end with the 10th best batting average of all time. He was quick on his feet, and he made a lot of hundreds. Five in a row, and a 90 when going for his sixth. And if this sounds like some accumulator, Richie Benaud once said of him, "He set out to hammer bowlers". Yet he only ever hit one six, he claimed, because if you hit the ball in the air you'd break someone's window.

But when Tony Cozier suggested to him that there was another six against his record, Weekes recalled it, but said they were overthrows. His mind was as fast as his feet. And yet this great couldn't be a member at the Pickwick Club at Kensington Oval. It was for whites only, so he could only enter before dawn to help with ground preparation. Weekes retired at 32, eight years later he made a hundred against an Australian team. Leaving the game so early, he probably left a few hundreds on the same surface he prepared as a child.

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Everton Weekes passed away at the age of 95 on July 1

The third W is Clyde Walcott. For 15 Tests Walcott was the wicketkeeper-batsman. In those he averaged 40, suggesting he may have been one of the greatest in that position if he continued. Instead, he became a specialist batsman, and without the gloves he averaged 64. In 1950, West Indies won their first Test in England. Walcott made 168 not out and kept in the match. It was the spinners Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine who bowled the most, delivering 231 overs. So Walcott carried the batting, then stood up at the stumps for days on end. He was big and muscular, David Frith once referred to his batting as "an unforgettable mix of silk and gently rolling thunder."

These three players had company, Wes Hall, the spinners mentioned above, and that other bloke, Garfield Sobers. They wouldn't become the great side in their era, but from '48 to '62, they won more than they lost. Cricket develops slowly in new Test nations. The pre-war players like George Headley and Learie Constantine were the legs, the post-war cricketers the rest of the body, and three Ws were the shoulders that the kings of cricket would stand on a generation later.

This is the bit where we should gush about this incredible midwife who serviced the people of St Parish and delivered one of cricket's greatest hat-tricks. But if the story is accurate - and it was Walcott who seemed to believe and spread it - then the details are gone. The woman's name has been speculated on, but there seems no consensus backed up by proof. All this does is add to the legend, but in this case, the legend is already so vast it's almost incomprehensible.

To have three men of this talent in the middle order at the same time is incredible. That they were also all from Barbados, St Michael, and all within a mile of each other is - well - supernatural. On cricket's grandest islands many greats have been born, but even by Barbados' impossible standards, this is a remarkable story.

And it doesn't end there, Worrell and Walcott are already buried at the Three Ws ground, if Weekes' family want it, there is space for him to rest beside them. From the cradle, to the crease, and back to the pavilion. One pair of hands, three greats, three Ws.

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