Cricket man-mountain Rahkeem Cornwall returns with monster century

Rahkeem Cornwall, the 140kg cult hero from West Indies, has returned with a bang in his country’s domestic one-day competition where he bought up two centuries in his first three matches. The 25-year-old stands 200cm tall and bats in the middle order for the Leeward Islands, while he’s also successful with the ball with his right-arm off-breaks.

He came into the limelight when he tonked England for 59 runs in a warm-up match in January last year. In the first game of the competition 10 days ago, Cornwall came in at No.5 and whacked an unbeaten 132 off just 94 balls to lift his side to 8-298 against the USA.

He then ripped through their opponents with 3/27 – including a caught and bowled – off his allotted 10 overs in a 162-run win. Cornwall contributed just 22 runs and went wicketless in their next win over Jamaica, but he was back with a bang against Guyana. The big man upstaged his representative teammates Kieran Powell and Marlon Samuels to hit four boundaries and ten sixes in a knock of 119 off 96 balls, as reported by Seven Sport. Unfortunately for Cornwall, nobody really followed him as two batsmen scored in the 40s but everyone else struggled to cross even 15 runs.

Cornwall’s massive size even puts Bermuda’s famously portly spinner, the 122-kilogram Dwayne Leverock, in the shade — but he’s been seen as a future international if he can get his weight under control, “We’re actually putting a program in place for Rahkeem where we are actually going to have someone to manage him overall,” West Indian chairman of selectors Courtney Browne said last year as quoted by Yahoo Sport.

“We are looking at the various components of him playing cricket where we are looking at coaches, dietitians, and just getting everybody to come together to help this young player because he’s a special talent.”

Cornwall has previously said he’s on board with the special dietary plan, “If losing weight is the issue then that is why I am on the program with the West Indies Cricket Board,” he said last year.