Famous Cricketers No 42 - Gary Sobers

SUMMARY In a first-class career that lasted more than 20 years, Sobers scored 28,315 runs at an average of almost 55 per innings. He claimed 1,043 wickets at less than 28 runs apiece. He also held more than 400 catches. These are extraordinary statistics which form the solid basis for the argument that cricket has never produced a finer all-rounder. Sobers was only the second West Indian (following Marshall) to exceed 25,000 runs. His 86 centuries stood as a West Indian record until surpassed by Viv Richards in 1985. He was the first West Indian to capture 1,000 wickets. His 1,043 remained a West Indian record until 1987 when Malcolm Marshall eclipsed it. By the end of the 1994 season this great fast bowler had taken 1,602 in 393 games. Sobers was the first of his countrymen, too, to take more than 400 catches. His 407 stood as a West Indian record until 1985 when Gordon Greenidge exceeded it. Greenidge ended his first-class career in 1992 with 516 from 523 matches. At the highest level of the game, Sobers performed even more splendidly. He scored more than 8,000 majestic runs for the West Indies at an average of almost 58 per innings. His 235 wickets cost approximately 34 runs each. He also held 109 catches in 93 Tests. At the time of his retirement in 1974, only Lance Gibbs among West Indians had taken more Test wickets. No one else in the world had yet exceeded 8,000 Test runs; and only Colin Cowdrey (120) and Walter Hammond (110) had taken more Test catches. Among West Indians, only Richards, with 122 catches in 121 Tests, has been able to overtake Sobers. The latter’s West Indian record of 8,032 Test runs has thus far been bettered only by Richards (8,540); and, apart from Richards, only Alan Border, Sunil Gavaskar, Graham Gooch, Javed Miandad, David Gower and Geoffrey Boycott have thus far bettered it. All of them played in many more Tests than Sobers and finished their careers with inferior averages. The West Indian record of 56 Test fifties, which Sobers set in 160 innings, was eventually broken by Richards who scored 69 in 182. The West Indian record of 6 catches in a single Test, which Sobers established at Lord’s in 1973, was equalled by Jimmy Adams, against England at Kingston, in 1994. The long-standing world record of 365 runs in a single Test innings, set by Sobers against Pakistan in March 1958, was finally broken, after 36 years, by Brian Lara of Trinidad & Tobago. But his aggregate of 824 runs in a Test series against Pakistan in the West Indies still stands as the most runs ever achieved anywhere by an individual in a single series against this country. Still standing triumphantly also is Gary’s individual aggregate of 1,354 runs (ave 104.15) in 11 Tests at Sabina Park. No other batsman has come close to scoring so many runs at this venue. Another West Indian record that still survives is Sobers’s 26 Test centuries. That mark has been bettered only by Gavaskar (34), Bradman (29) and Border (27). To this day, he still shares eight West Indian partnership records. For Barbados, in 30 games, Sobers registered 2,355 runs (ave 75.96), 71 wickets (ave 30.04) and 22 catches. These are still the best all-round statistics on behalf of that island. In fact, no Barbadian has yet approached Gary’s phenomenal batting average. For South Australia, in 26 games, Sobers recorded 2,707 runs (ave 62.95), 137 wickets (ave 26.02) and 26 catches. His contribution to Nottinghamshire’s cause in 107 matches reads: 7,041 runs (ave 48.99), 281 wickets (ave 25.62) and 110 catches. In 19 matches for the Rest of the World, Sobers scored 1,250 runs (ave 48.07), took 50 wickets (ave 17.28) and held 20 catches. 68