- The cricket world is mourning West Indies great Garry Sobers.
- Bradman praised Sobers as the greatest cricketer of all time.
- The Sobers retired from Test cricket in 1974.
Cricket in the 20th century was full of great players, but by universal consensus two stand head and shoulders above the rest: Australian batsman Donald Bradman and West Indies all-rounder Garry Sobers, who has died aged 89.
“A great innings has come to an end. In our hearts, now and always, Sir Garfield Sobers,” West Indies Cricket posted on social media on Friday.
In a poll of 100 cricket experts in 1999, both Bradman and Sobers were voted among Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the 20th Century, with the West Indies all-rounder polling 90 votes.
Bradman won an extraordinary 100 votes, and yet before his own death in 2001, the Don paid the ultimate tribute to Sobers.
“In my opinion, he is the greatest cricketer of all time,” the Don said.
That tribute is based not just on statistics or style (of which Sobers had plenty) but on the impressive breadth of his cricketing ability.
As a batsman, Sobers scored 8,032 runs in his 93 Tests at an average of 57.78, numbers that alone would guarantee him a place in any pantheon.
Apart from that, Sobers was a bowler who took 235 wickets at 34.03 runs apiece.
He sometimes opened left-arm fast but, if the delivery broke, he switched to the left-arm spin (orthodox or wrist) that first caught him the attention of the West Indies selectors as a teenager.
He was also a lightning fielder, taking 109 Test catches, often slipping, but, as captain, he would put himself in the danger zone at short leg when he brought Lance Gibbs into the attack.
“That guy could do almost anything on a cricket field except umpire,” Australian all-rounder Alan Davidson told The Cricket Monthly on the occasion of Sobers’ 80th birthday in 2016.
“He was an all-round cricketer, a magnificent defender, bowled all types of bowling and when fit, completely decimated big bowling attacks.
“You couldn’t put a field on him because he had that innate ability to be able to score runs whenever he wanted.”
‘Early promise’
Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, known as Gary and Garry, was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, on July 28, 1936, the fifth of six children.
He was only six years old when his father Shamont, a merchant mariner, died when his ship CNS Lady Hawkins was hit by two torpedoes from a German submarine off the coast of North Carolina.
The sober ones showed immense early promise in several sports. He made his debut for Barbados against the Indian tourists as a spinner in January 1953, aged just 16.
A year later he played against the MCC tourists and, after just two first-class matches, was selected as a substitute for the ailing Alf Valentine for a Test debut against England at Sabina Park in March 1954.
The tourists won by nine wickets, but Sobers made a good impression, removing Trevor Bailey in his first over and taking 4-75 in the tourists’ first innings.
Break records
Four years later, he switched planes against Pakistan in Kingston, breaking a world record in the process.
Since 1938, Len Hutton’s 364 against Australia at the Oval had stood as the highest individual score in Test cricket. Sobers, in his first Test century, made 365 not out, setting a record that would last until another West Indian, Brian Lara, made 375 against England in 1994.
In the tied Test at Brisbane in 1960-61, he scored an impressive score of 132, setting the tone for a memorable series.
“It was absolutely one of the best innings I’ve ever seen in my life,” Davidson said.
“He didn’t just beat the field. He split the field. His placement was just incredible.”
Sobers succeeded Frank Worrell as captain of the West Indies in the 1964-65 home series against Australia and led the hosts to their first series victory against the Australians.
Results were mixed under his captaincy, which lasted until 1972, when he handed over the reins to Rohan Kanhai, but with Sobers’ hand on the helm, West Indies cricket continued to develop and evolve to become the dominant force of the late 1970s and 1980s.
As Sobers aged his influence on the field diminished, but he still scored 254 for the rest of the world at the MCG in 1972 in what Bradman described as “probably the greatest batting display ever seen in Australia”.
Outside of international play, Sobers helped South Australia win the Sheffield Shield and played for Nottinghamshire in the English County Championship.
In 1968, while facing Glamorgan bowler Malcolm Nash, he became the first player to score six sixes in an over, a feat that has only been equaled once since in first-class cricket it was achieved by Indian all-rounder Ravi Shastri in 1985.
Sobers retired from Test cricket in 1974 and was knighted a year later.
The International Cricket Council honored him in 2004 with the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the annual world player of the year, but it is Bradman’s testament that will mark him as one of cricket’s greatest players.
