DateLine: 2nd September 2006

Sir Clyde Leopold Walcott (80) ICC's former Chairman (1993 - 97) and one of the most dominant batsman in 1950's passed away on August 26, 2006 in Barbodos. A giant in physique Walcott was the largest and most powerful of the three famous W's - the other two were Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Everton de courcy Weeks. He was a tremendous striker of the ball and hooker of immense power.

Born on January 17, 1926 he rose to great fame when he with FMM Worrell established a new highest partnership record for any wicket with an unbroken 4th wicket stand of 574 for Barbados against Trinidad at Port of Spain in 1945 - 46. His contribution in that stand was 314 Not out which was also his highest score. A year later in March 1947 the Indians Hazare and Gul Muhammad beat that record by three runs and which only recently on July 29, 2006 after 59 years has been further improved by Sri Lanka's KC Sangakkar a and DPMD Jayawardene yielding 624 runs for the third wicket against South Africa at Colombo.

At 16 Walcott made his first Class debut for Barbados and later he also represented British Guiana. In a career spanned from 1947 - 48 to 1959 - 60 Walcott scored 3798 in 44 tests at an average of 56.68 with 15 hundreds. His Test average is amongst the best ever over a minimum qualification of 20 innings. He holds a unique record of scoring a century in each innings of a test match twice in the same series (126 & 110 at Port of Spain and 155 & 110 at Kingston against Australia in 1954-55). That was also his most successful series in which he tallied 827 runs at an amazing average of 82.70 scoring a record number of five centuries. He also scored two fifties (73 & 83) in that series. Only a season earlier in 1953 - 54 the prolific scorer had amassed 698 runs at an astounding average of 87.25 with three hundreds (220, 124 and 116) and two fifties (65 and 50). Walcott was also highly successful in two series against India scoring 452 (Average 64.57) in 1948 - 49 and 457 (Average 76.16) in 1952 - 53. He also played against Pakistan in 1957 - 58 accumulating 385 runs at an average of 96.25 with principal scores of 88 Not Out, 145 and 62. Such was his scoring consistency that he was dismissed for naught only once during his 74 innings test career.

Walcott had also appeared for the visiting West Indian team in Pakistan's inaugural international match at Baghi Jinnah Lahore in November 1948, and scored 41. In his early career he had also kept Wickets.

Walcott had called it a day after appearing in the fifth and final test at Port of Spain against England in 1959 - 60.

He was awarded, the OBE in 1965 for his services to West Indies Cricket. He was manager of the West Indies team which toured England in 1969. As ICC Chairman he had also toured the sub continent during 1996 World Cup.

Alas: a great legend and a life time devotee of the game has passed away.

Career at a Glance

Period	Test	Innings	Runs	Highest	Average	100's	50's	Catches	Stumpings
1947- 60	44	74	3798	220	56.08	15	14	54	11

Runs & Centuries

V/S England     1391 --  168, 220, 124, 116 (4)
V/S Australia    914 --  108, 126, 110, 155 & 110 (5)
V/S India        909 --  152, 108, 125, 118 (4)
V/S Pakistan     385 --  145 (1)
V/S Newzealand   199 --  115 (1)

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
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