Retirement and Post-cricketing Career
Weekes retired from Test cricket in 1958 due to a persistent thigh injury but continued in first-class cricket until 1964, his final first-class match being against Trinidad and Tobago in Port-of-Spain, scoring 19 and 13. Weekes passed 12,000 first-class runs in his final innings, becoming only the third West Indian, after Worrell and Roy Marshall, to do so.
Post-retirement, Weekes would make occasional appearances in charity and exhibition matches, including for the International Cavaliers. In one 1967 match, aged 42, Weekes, out of practice and in borrowed gear, dominated a bowling attack half his age. Weekes also participated in a Cavaliers tour of Rhodesia in the early 1960s, where he was the focus of racial discrimination, including having a match against a Bulawayo side moved to a substandard ground in a black area due to a local bylaw banning blacks from playing in a white area. Feeling humiliated, Weekes and fellow West Indian Rohan Kanhai threatened to abandon the tour but remained following an apology from Rhodesian government officials.
While Weekes was never coached as a young player, he was appointed a Barbados Government Sports Officer in 1958 and found great success as a coach, encouraging young players to obey their instincts and develop their own style. Such was his success, Weekes was appointed coach of the Canadian side at the 1979 Cricket World Cup.
Additionally, Weekes served on the executive of the Barbados Cricket Association for many years and helped develop many leading Barbadian players, including Conrad Hunte and Seymour Nurse, both deeply influenced by Weekes.
Weekes also found time to work as a television and radio cricket commentator, known for his acerbic wit and deep knowledge of the game and began to play Dominoes and Bridge competitively, representing Barbados in regional Bridge championships. The New York Times referred to his style as "aggressive".
In 1994 Weekes was appointed as an International Cricket Council match referee, refereeing in four Tests and three One Day Internationals.
Weekes published his memoirs Mastering the Craft: Ten years of Weekes, 1948 to 1958 in December 2007, when it was announced that the book will be included in the curriculum of the Caribbean Civilisation Foundation course at the University of the West Indies.
Outside of cricket, Weekes became a Justice of the Peace and served on a number of Barbados Government bodies, including the Police Service Commission.
Weekes' cousin Kenneth Weekes and son David Murray also played Test cricket for the West Indies, while his grandson Ricky Hoyte played first-class cricket for Barbados and his nephew Donald Weekes played one first-class match for Sussex.
Read more about this topic: Everton Weekes
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