Famous Cricketers No 42 - Gary Sobers

20. Barbados v British Guiana, Georgetown, October 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 (Match drawn) c and b L.R.Gibbs 77 211 56 20 108 1 G.L.Gibbs b 581 not out 32 67/4 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Barbados 2 3 1 119 77 59.50 - 1 0 Career 20 31 7 957 104* 39.87 1 5 10 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Barbados (6-ball) 91 41 146 5 4/24 29.20 - - Career (6-ball) 613.5 239 1187 39 4/24 30.43 - - 1957 - West Indians in England Notwithstanding the difficulties he had encountered in New Zealand, Sobers was an automatic choice for the West Indian team to tour England this summer. He had confirmed his early promise by striking a glorious century for E.DeC.Weekes’ XI against C.L. Walcott’s XI in one of the trial matches at Port-of-Spain in January. Unfortunately, however, these matches were denied first-class status. Sobers was one of the brighter lights in a generally gloomy season for the tourists. He scored more runs than any of his colleagues and struck the only West Indian double century. His bowling was invariably steady if not always penetrative and he ended up with 37 wickets at reasonable cost. In the five Tests, he batted consistently enough to average 32 per innings, but he continued to lose his wicket just when he appeared to have collared the attack. He exceeded 28 on six occasions (at least once in each Test) but registered only two Test fifties, both of which he failed to convert into hundreds. His performance in the fifth Test at the Oval, however, marked him out as a more than useful batsman when, in very difficult conditions against Jim Laker and Tony Lock, he made 81 of the 167 runs which the West Indies garnered off their bats. These marked the first occasions on which Sobers top-scored in a Test match for the West Indies. In his first appearance at Lord’s, against M.C.C. in May, he struck his first century on English soil, a glorious and unbeaten 101. At Northampton, in his 22nd match, he finally exceeded 1,000 runs in first-class cricket — a milestone which Goddard, his captain, had reached in 14 games, Walcott in 13, Weekes in 14 and Worrell in 11. In his 27th match, against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, Sobers achieved his first double-century, an undefeated 219, which was to remain his highest score on English soil. On this occasion he and Walcott (115) added 193 runs for the second wicket after Nyron Asgarali had been dismissed by Arthur Jepson for 4. In what was perhaps his most dazzling display of the summer, Sobers struck a splendid 104 against Somerset at Taunton in July, when he enjoyed another century partnership with Walcott. This was the game, his 36th, in which he exceeded 2,000 runs in first-class cricket. He ended the tour with a batting average of more than 41 runs per innings and it never fell below 40 again. In his 29th match, against Gloucestershire at Bristol in June, Sobers captured 5 wickets in an innings for the first time in his first-class career. Finally given his opportunity to field at short leg and in the slips, he immediately established himself as one of the finest close-to-the-wicket fielders in the squad by holding four catches in the first game at Worcester. But the tourists were overmatched by some of the most powerful teams ever selected to represent England and lost the Test series 3-0, even though they managed to win 14 of their 31 first-class matches and to avoid defeat at the hands of any county. With the notable exception of Worrell, the older Caribbean stars failed and the younger lions (apart from Sobers and ‘Collie’ Smith) were not yet experienced enough to compensate. The failure of the specialist opening batsmen (Asgarali, Andy Ganteaume and Bruce Pairaudeau) meant that Sobers and Worrell eventually had to open the innings on far too many occasions, and the absence of a recognized wicketkeeper for the greater portion of the tour also prevented the West Indians from repeating their triumphs of 1950. 15