All of us know that intelligence is more than a symphony of ‘know-how’ and ‘know-what’ areas in the brain. As Juan Huarte, the Spanish physician, contextualised, intelligence is the ability to learn, exercise judgment, and be imaginative — a case of neural Darwinism, lyrical and evolving.
For Jean Piaget, the Swiss psychologist, intelligence is what you use when you know what to do. His perception was based on insight. Insight is, after all, intelligent behaviour. Piaget’s observation also captured the essence of what is called intelligent improvising — the coping and grouping ability that is prerequisite when there are no right answers. Picture this too: raising a coffee cup to one’s lips requires improvisation. This holds good for anything that is also enacted in cricket — on the playing field.
Sir Everton DeCourcy Weekes, who passed away into the sunset, at age 95, exemplified such an outlook. He was a total phenomenon in his own, eclectic way — and, no amount of critical evaluation can detract from the merits of his amazing contribution to the game and its ability in throwing up heroes with every new generation. Put simply, Weekes’ sublime brilliance was analogous to the amazing genius of football’s one and only ‘King’ Pele.
Short, stocky and strong-framed, Weekes was every inch a princely batsman. He was to cricket what calypso and Paul McCartney’s melodies are to music. To quote The Guardian, “he cut, hooked and drove powerfully off either foot the fastest bowlers of his time. His rare defensive stroke was invariably played late, as though he mentally ran through every possible aggressive shot, looking until the last moment for a way of attacking the bowling before reluctantly conceding that the particular ball could only be played defensively; which defensive stroke he then employed as gracefully as he did grudgingly.”
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