Famous Cricketers No 42 - Gary Sobers

PREFACE This study has sprung from the firm conviction that no ‘Famous Cricketers’ series can be regarded as authentic unless it contains a monograph on the greatest all-rounder that the world has yet seen. But it is offered nevertheless with serious reservations. In the first place, I know that no kind of arithmetic can possibly do justice to the art and poetry of Sobers’s cricket. Secondly, he was more than just a majestic strokeplayer, brilliant all-round fieldsman, imaginative captain and all-purpose bowler: he was (and still is) a very fine gentleman who made friends easily everywhere. The excellent features of his personality can never be captured in a statistical analysis of wickets, runs and catches. Thirdly, I am also too conscious of the fact that, having grown up with Garfield in the Bay Land and admired his athleticism for virtually as long as we both have lived, it is impossible for me to write dispassionately about him. My subjectivity has been tempered somewhat, I hope, by the wise counsel of such friends as Charles Alleyne, Sir Carlisle Burton, Bertie Callender and Ronnie Hughes. To them I owe a special debt of gratitude. I must also acknowledge the assistance of several members of the Association of Cricket Statisticians, especially Donald Ambrose, Peter Griffiths and Peter Wynne-Thomas. The first performed the difficult task of tracking down Gary’s record in the northern leagues; the second dealt very professionally with the manuscript, disk and galley proofs; and the third was kind enough to send very promptly, upon request, some vital information that could not be unearthed in this quarter of the globe. Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada, January 1998 3