Famous Cricketers No 42 - Gary Sobers

this occasion was steady but lacked penetration. He did manage to dismiss Tony Lock twice but this was his only success with the ball. The M.C.C. were thus able to defeat Barbados for the first time in fifty years. At the end of the M.C.C. tour, with Alfred Valentine suffering from an injury, Sobers was summoned to Kingston to play his first Test match for the West Indies. He was only 17 years, 245 days and had acquired only two matches of first-class experience. He was (and remains) the second youngest player to represent the West Indies in Test cricket. The youngest is Derek Sealy (17 years, 129 days). Sobers acquitted himself very well with both bat and ball, although, somewhat surprisingly, he was asked to bat no higher than No. 9 — despite the promise he had shown in the Barbados game. His first Test victim was none other than Trevor Bailey who was destined to write his biography several years later. When Bailey was caught by the wicketkeeper, Clifford McWatt, for 23 with the score at 43, it marked the first time that Sobers received any help from his team-mates in capturing a wicket (his 10th) in first-class cricket. The highlights of this Test were a superb double-century by Hutton and a brilliant exhibition of seam-bowling by Bailey who torpedoed the West Indian first innings by capturing 7/34 in 16 overs. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 2. Barbados v M.C.C., Bridgetown, January 29, 30, February 1, 2, 3 (M.C.C. won by one wicket) st R.T.Spooner b D.C.S.Compton 46 389 34 6 103 1 G.A.R.Lock lbw 373 b J.C.Laker 27 179 19 9 36 1 G.A.R.Lock b 196/9 3. WEST INDIES v ENGLAND, Kingston, March 30, 31, April 1, 2, 3 (England won by nine wickets) not out 14 139 28.5 9 75 4 T.E.Bailey c C.A.McWatt 414 J.H.Wardle c J.K.Holt G.A.R.Lock b J.C.Laker b c D.C.S.Compton b G.A.R.Lock 26 346 1 0 6 0 72/1 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Tests 1 2 1 40 26 40.00 - - - Barbados 1 2 0 73 46 36.50 - - - Season 2 4 1 113 46 37.67 - - - Career 3 5 2 120 46 40.00 - - - Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Tests 29.5 9 81 4 4/75 20.25 - - Barbados 53 15 139 2 1/36 69.50 - - Season (6-ball) 82.5 24 220 6 4/75 36.67 - - Career (6-ball) 171.5 64 362 13 4/50 27.85 - - 1954/55 Sobers played seven first-class games, including four Tests, for the first time this season. Five of these were against the touring Australians and two against British Guiana. He achieved his maiden century, at British Guiana’s expense, in his fifth first-class match. He registered his first catch in first-class cricket when, in his fourth game, he held a chance off Atkinson’s bowling to dismiss Norman Wight. In his third Test match, at Georgetown, he took his first catch at this level. The victim was Arthur Morris, again off Atkinson’s bowling. In eight Test innings this season, he four times surpassed 30 runs but seemed to lose his focus on each occasion when very well set. His bowling also appeared less dangerous than it had been against the Indians two years before, although it must be said that Jeffrey Stollmeyer, the West Indies captain, seriously undermined the youngster’s confidence by allowing him only 3 overs while Australia were amassing a mammoth total of 600/9 declared in the second Test at Port-of-Spain. Even so, in Sobers and ‘Collie’ Smith, the West Indies had obviously discovered two very good young players with the potential to become the best all-rounders in the world. Australia won the series handily, despite the awesome batting form displayed by Walcott, who 11