Famous Cricketers No 42 - Gary Sobers

Sunil Gavaskar of India registered 34 and Alan Border of Australia 27. Sobers became the first West Indian batsman to exceed 500 runs in no fewer than 6 Test series — a record that still remains intact. This fell just short of the world record (7) which Bradman had established during 1928-48. Still surviving also is the West Indian record of 3 Test series in which Sobers exceeded 700 runs. His 824 against Pakistan in 1957/58 is still the highest aggregate conceded by that country in any Test series either at home or abroad. His 709 against England in 1959/60 was a record for the West Indies against England in the Caribbean, surpassing the mark of 703 that Headley had established in 1929/30. Brian Lara eventually set the current standard of 798 in 1993/94. In 1966, Sobers scored 722 runs in a Test series in England, leaving far behind the previous record of 539 that Worrell had set in 1950. This new mark was eventually superseded by Viv Richards who amassed 829 runs in four Tests in 1976. Throughout the 1960s, Sobers sustained a Test average hovering around 60 runs per innings. After his 65th Test in April 1968, his average stood at 63.77 and was second only to Bradman’s 99.94. It finished up at 57.78, a truly remarkable accomplishment for a batsman playing 160 innings. No batsman who has played as many Test innings as Sobers has achieved a better average. In all first-class cricket, Sobers accumulated 28,315 runs and averaged 54.67 per innings. He struck 86 centuries. Needless to say, most of these numbers survived as West Indian records for almost two decades. To this day, among West Indians, only Viv Richards (114), Gordon Greenidge (92) and Alvin Kallicharran (87) have registered more centuries in first-class cricket. And, apart from them, only Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai and Roy Marshall have scored more runs. When the cricket world discusses the greatest batsmen of all time, the name of Sir Garfield Sobers features prominently in the debate. He is in that short list which includes Sir Donald Bradman, George Headley and Sir John Berry Hobbs. When the greatest fieldsmen are under review, Sobers is again in a very short list that includes Colin Bland, Lord Constantine, Hammond, Roger Harper, Neil Harvey, Lloyd, Derek Randall and Richards. But when the greatest all-rounders are being discussed, the debate is really about who should rank second behind Sir Garfield. Names like Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Dr. W.G. Grace, Imran Khan, Keith Miller and Wilfred Rhodes come to the surface in the selection of the proxime accessit . There can be no question that Sobers is the greatest all-rounder who has ever lived. In the end, as John Arlott once observed, Sobers was undone by his own genius. He was expected to display his wide range of talents more spectacularly and more frequently than any other cricketer. Injury and fatigue gradually took their toll, so that by the early 1970s the Great Man had become a shadow of his former self. While they did not prevent him from scoring that magnificent 254 at Melbourne in January 1972 and a truly gorgeous and unbeaten 150 against England at Lord’s in August 1973, they conspired to hasten his exit from the game at the age of 38. He was hoping to participate in the inaugural World Cup in 1975, but his hurt and tired knees simply would not allow him to do so. Sobers eventually suffered from a surfeit of cricket. He represented Barbados in 30 matches over a period of 21 years (1953-74). His record for his country is unmatched: 2,355 runs (av: 75.96), 71 wickets (av: 30.04) and 22 catches. He still boasts the finest batting average on behalf of Barbados. Only Frank Worrell (73.66) and John Lucas (64.37) are remotely close. Sobers also played 26 games in three full seasons with South Australia during 1961-64, scoring over 2,700 runs at just under 63 per innings and capturing 137 wickets at little more than 26 runs each. He made that state one of the most powerful forces in the Sheffield Shield competition, which it vanquished in 1964 for the first time in eleven years. For Nottinghamshire, he toiled manfully from 1968 until 1974, appearing in 107 matches in the English county championship, scoring just over 7,000 runs at slightly better than 48 per innings and taking almost 300 wickets at approximately 26 runs apiece. He managed, almost single-handedly, to lift that team from a fifteenth place finish in 1967 to fourth in 1968. Gary also toured with teams representing the Cavaliers, the Commonwealth and the Rest of the World. His 383 first-class games stood for several years as a West Indian record — discounting the career of Roy Marshall whose 602 matches included no fewer than 504 for Hampshire. In addition, Sobers played 8