Famous Cricketers No 42 - Gary Sobers

Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Tour (6-ball) 20.3 4 62 2 2/33 31.00 - - Career (6-ball) 6969.3 1963 } 23245 850 9/49 27.34 33 1 (8-ball) 1792.2 236 1970/71 This was a very busy winter for Sobers who played six matches against the touring Indians in the Caribbean, and three for Barbados in the Shell Shield competition. His teams lost. Barbados endured one of their least successful seasons in the regional tournament, and then the West Indies proceeded to lose a Test series for the first time to India. This was the fourth successive loss for the West Indies under Sobers and their second in a row at home. For this the captain could hardly be held personally responsible since his individual performances were outstanding. The West Indies were simply encountering considerable difficulty in trying to reconstruct their team after the good years of the early sixties. In concrete terms, Sobers registered 914 runs (ave 65.29), 27 wickets (ave 25.44) and 8 catches in 10 first-class games. His batting in the five Tests against India was magnificent. He scored 597 runs to take his aggregate against that country to 1920 in 18 Tests to surpass the West Indian record of 1,495 previously held by Weekes. His three centuries took him to 8 at India’s expense to establish another West Indian record. The previous best was 7 by Weekes. Sobers’s record has since been equalled only by Viv Richards who played 28 Tests against India. Sobers also became the first West Indian, and only the third batsman in the world, to exceed 7,000 runs in Test cricket. He had moved beyond Walter Hammond’s long-standing record of 7,249 and was trailing only Colin Cowdrey (with 7,459). This series marked the sixth time that he had achieved an aggregate in excess of 500 Test runs - another West Indian record. Sobers also became, after Lance Gibbs, only the second West Indian to capture 200 Test wickets. He was the first West Indian, and only the third in the world (after Cowdrey and Hammond), to take 100 Test catches. He was the first Test cricketer from any country to achieve the amazing double of 7,000 runs and 200 wickets. At Sabina Park, in the first Test, Sobers extended his amazing record on that ground to 1,284 runs (ave: 107.00) in 9 matches. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 292. Barbados v Combined Islands, Castries, St. Lucia, January 22, 23, 24 (Barbados won by nine wickets) c E.T.Willett b A.M.E.Roberts 12 200 2 1 2 0 109 1 did not bat - 51/1 25 10 44 5 G.Alfred c P.D.Lashley 141 I.T.Shillingford lbw L.Harris c D.A.Murray A.Hector c W.E.Ashby A.M.E.Roberts st D.A.Murray 293. Barbados v Guyana, Bridgetown, January 29, 30, 31, February 1 (Match drawn) c M.R.Pydanna b C.H.Lloyd 45 410/9d 19 5 51 0 386 did not bat - 215/5 294. Barbados v Trinidad & Tobago, Port-of-Spain, February 5, 6, 7, 8 (Trinidad & Tobago won by five wickets) not out 24 178 25.3 11 44 4 O.M.Durity c D.A.Murray 304 A.A.Corneal lbw P.C.Bartholomew c D.A.Murray P.Roberts b c B.A.Davis b J.M.Noreiga 76 256 13 4 31 1 R.M.de Souza c S.M.Nurse 131/5 295. WEST INDIES v INDIA, Kingston, February 18, 19, 20, 22, 23 (Match drawn) c S.Abid Ali b E.A.S.Prasanna 44 217 30 8 57 2 E.D.Solkar b 387 1 S.Venkataraghavan c T.M.Findlay c P.Krishnamurthy b E.D.Solkar 93 385/5 296. WEST INDIES v INDIA, Port-of-Spain, March 6, 7, 9, 10 (India won by seven wickets) b S.Venkataraghavan 29 214 28 7 65 0 352 b A.S.Durani 0 261 15 5 16 0 125/3 56