Famous Cricketers No 42 - Gary Sobers

several seasons as a professional for Littleborough and Radcliffe in the Central Lancashire League and for Norton in the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire League. He naturally became the leading all-rounder in the northern leagues, routinely exceeding 1,000 runs per season and twice capturing more than 100 wickets. In 1961, in fact, he led his league in both departments with 1,008 runs (av: 63.00) and 144 wickets (av: 9.83) and took Radcliffe to the Central Lancashire League ‘double’ for the first time in its history. That year, the club won both the regular season championship and the much coveted Wood Cup. Sobers succeeded Frank Worrell as captain of the West Indies and led them from 1965 until 1972. His 39 Tests as captain was another West Indian record. It has since been broken by Lloyd (74) and Richards (50). He led the West Indies to victory in his first three series (against Australia, England and India) but his teams never won another rubber. A notorious gamble seriously backfired in 1968 when England achieved an unexpected triumph at Port-of-Spain and the West Indies under Sobers endured an unusually lean spell thereafter. Altogether he won only 9 Tests as captain, losing 10 and drawing 20. Some have argued that Sobers was neither a good tactician nor an inspirational leader. The sad fact, however, is that the teams he led were not that strong. They were much too dependent upon his own personal skills. The West Indies spent some time replacing Hall and Griffith as opening bowlers and could find no worthy successors to such fine batsmen as Basil Butcher, Conrad Hunte and Seymour Nurse until the emergence of Roy Fredericks, Greenidge, Kallicharran and Richards in the mid-1970s. Gary remains the star personality in the history of West Indies cricket and he made a huge contribution to the dominance of Barbados during the early years of the Shell Shield competition. He has inspired a host of youngsters to play the game and his influence can clearly be seen in the approach and mannerisms of his many imitators. The great Malcolm Marshall, for instance, has often publicly confessed to having worshipped at Sir Garfield’s altar. As an international star lifting himself to the top by the magnificence of his cricket, Sobers has served as a role model also for millions of teenagers beyond the shores of Barbados. He is the single most popular of all Barbadians and he has taken the Barbadian flag to all parts of the world and covered it with glory. As the embodiment of cricket excellence, he emerged as one of the truly great national symbols after his country’s achievement of political independence in 1966. Barbados still holds Sir Garfield in awe, as Brian Stoddart, the eminent cricket sociologist, has so often observed. This is reflected in the numerous honours and distinctions heaped upon him since his retirement. He was knighted in 1975 for his services to the game, becoming only the fourth West Indian cricketer (following Sir Harold Austin, Lord Constantine and Sir Frank Worrell) to be thus elevated. Even before that, his image had been engraved on a Barbados Independence Postage Stamp. Shortly after his retirement, the BCA instituted the Sir Garfield Sobers Schools Cricket Tournament. In 1986, it honoured him with the erection of the Sir Garfield Sobers Pavilion at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. It honoured him again in 1992 during its celebrations of 100 years of organized cricket in the island. The University of the West Indies (UWI), in that same year, conferred on Sir Garfield an Honorary Doctorate of Laws at the Barbados campus. Two years later, the attractive Sir Garfield Sobers Gymnasium, a huge, multi-purpose sports complex, was officially opened in Wildey, St. Michael, and the street on which he played cricket outside his home in his youth was renamed the Sir Garfield Sobers Avenue. In 1994, too, the whole Barbadian community joined the BCA, Cable & Wireless Ltd, CLICO International Life Insurance Company, the Centre for Cricket Research in Barbados, the National Cultural Foundation of Barbados, the UWI and a host of other institutions to help the Sir Garfield Sobers Foundation celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Great Man’s Test début. Various scholars were invited to participate in the Sir Garfield Sobers Cricket Lecture Series which the public attended with great interest and enthusiasm, even though the lectures were broadcast live over the radio and nationally televised a few weeks later. More tangibly, Sobers enjoyed a profit of more than £100,000 on this occasion. He had previously been the recipient of a bountiful West Indian benefit in 1973 as well as a testimonial from Nottinghamshire in 1975. 9