Famous Cricketers No 42 - Gary Sobers

competition. This arrangement proved beneficial both to Sobers and Police. It provided the former with greater opportunities to exhibit his enormous skills and it gave the latter the services of one of the finest cricketers in the Caribbean. Sobers never forgot the kindnesses bestowed upon him by Farmer and Police. Long after he had become a famous professional, he continued to represent that club whenever the opportunity presented itself. The decision to play for Police was the turning point in young Gary’s career. He was exposed to superior competition and was finally able to play on the best batting strips in the island. His progress was rapid. By 1952, he had become the leading all-rounder in the BCA competition. His bowling remained steady and penetrative, his fielding was brilliant anywhere, and his batting was improving by leaps and bounds. During the 1951-52 season, he achieved a glorious century against Wanderers despite the quality of the bowling and the unpredictability of a rain-affected pitch at the Bay. It was a remarkable effort for a batsman still only 15. Sobers performed well with both bat and ball in the trials that followed and was selected to the Final Thirteen from which the Barbados XI to oppose India in early 1953 would be chosen. On account of his youth, the selectors intended to name him the twelfth man even though he had out-performed Horace King, the other left-arm spinner, throughout the season and in the trials. But at the very last minute, Frank King (the Barbadian fast bowler), decided that it would be best to stand down in order to remain fit for the forthcoming Bridgetown Test and Sobers was inserted into the line-up. Many Bay Land villagers, like myself, firmly believed that King, who had recently moved into the district, had deliberately behaved in this manner to ensure that Gary would have to be selected. Thus did Gary’s first-class career commence before he had reached the age of 17. He was lucky that the selectors decided, in the end, not to replace Frank King with another pacer even though the squad included only one other fast bowler, Hughley Barker. It is incredible, however, that they could consider Sobers only as a last resort after he had performed so brilliantly both in the regular season and in the trials. The youngster amply demonstrated their monumental folly by bowling with a maturity that belied his tender age. On a batsman’s paradise, which produced 1,250 runs for 16 wickets in just under five days, Sobers returned the phenomenal analysis of 89-40-142-7. His victims included Datta Gaekwad (twice), Vijay Manjrekar, Dattu Phadkar (twice), ‘Deepak’ Shodhan and ‘Polly’ Umrigar. All seven of his victims were dismissed (bowled or lbw) without any assistance from his fieldsmen or wicketkeeper. In stark contrast, the more experienced Horace King could manage only 1/63 from 27 overs during the entire match. Even in the second innings, when Manjrekar (154), Pankaj Roy (89) and Umrigar (96 not out) were pummelling the local attack, John Goddard, the Barbados captain, did not see fit to offer King more than 17 overs while Gary was called upon to deliver 67. No fewer than 35 of these tidy overs were maidens. It was the kind of virtuoso performance that ought to have gained Sobers immediate promotion to the West Indies Test squad, at a time when Sonny Ramadhin (13/470) seemed to be struggling; but his claims were overlooked during this series. As an orthodox left-arm spinner, Sobers never again bowled as well as he did against the Indians at Bridgetown in 1953. It is true that he was selected for his first Test match in 1954 as a spin-bowler against Len Hutton’s team in the Caribbean. He made a memorable début, taking 4/75 in 28.5 overs on a good batting pitch at Kingston and looked very promising too. But his effort against India was a real clinic on control of length and mastery of flight. He taxed the skills of some great batsmen to the limit while delivering an astonishingly small number of loose balls. Sobers added to his repertoire during the 1950s by experimenting with the ‘chinaman’, the left-hander’s googlie, which he very cleverly disguised on occasion. His great breakthrough as a world-class bowler, however, came in the early 1960s when he suddenly emerged as one of the most penetrative new-ball bowlers in the game. Using a controlled, rhythmic run-up, patterned after the style of Frank Worrell, his great mentor, he bowled with deceptive speed and created difficulties for a host of opening batsmen everywhere. Most of Sobers’s first-class wickets were eventually captured in this manner. 6