Famous Cricketers No 42 - Gary Sobers

Sobers became, in fact, the complete bowler. He could use as many as three styles of bowling and sometimes did so in the course of a single innings. He could, as a spinner, make the ball break sharply both ways. As a seamer, he could also make it swerve in both directions. No individual in the history of cricket has been so versatile a bowler. He ended his first-class career with 1,043 wickets (av: 27.75) which was easily a West Indian record when he retired. In 93 Tests, he captured 235 wickets at an average of 34.03 runs apiece. He was the second among all West Indian bowlers, following only Lance Gibbs, to take more than 200 in Test cricket. Sobers became the complete fieldsman also. At the beginning of his career, he patrolled the mid-field and the boundary with distinction. He displayed great speed, fine powers of anticipation and an accurate throw from anywhere. Legend has it that, even as late as 1964, he was capable of fielding in a manner that the great Learie Constantine would have envied. In a league cricket match for Norton, as John Kay has written in Cricket in the Leagues , Sobers once caught a batsman just in front of the sightscreen off his own bowling! He chased a mighty hit and held it safely over his shoulder after shouting to all of his teammates to “leave it to me!”. Sobers graduated to the more specialist positions when the older West Indian players retired. By the late 1950s, finally given the opportunity, Sobers emerged as one of the most brilliant close-to-the-wicket fielders in the history of the game. He took several extraordinary catches at short leg and just as many more in the slips — to the great joy and benefit of Lance Gibbs, Charlie Griffith and Wesley Hall in particular. He finished his first-class career with 407 catches altogether, including 109 in his 93 Tests. All of these were easily West Indian records by the time of his retirement in 1974. By that time, in fact, only Colin Cowdrey (117 in 109 Tests) and Walter Hammond (110 in 85) had done better. It is more than likely that Sobers would have eclipsed both of these marks as well had he fielded in the slips during the earlier portion of his career. The previous West Indian record, by way of apt comparison, was 49 catches by Everton Weekes in 48 Test matches. But it is as a batsman that Sobers will, in the final analysis, be best remembered. Many pundits rank him as one of the finest strokeplayers the world has ever known. He is undoubtedly the greatest batsman thus far produced by Barbados, and perhaps second only to Jamaica’s George Headley among all West Indians. In style and method, his technique was orthodox. His success was grounded upon impeccable, almost classic, defence. His footwork was swift and sure, although he always gave the appearance of being cool and casual. He learnt to play all of the recognized strokes and made his runs from all corners of the ground. His favourite improvisation was the famous short-arm flick between mid-wicket and mid-on. This particular stroke has forever defied adequate description or analysis. It was neither a drive nor a pull, neither a sweep nor a hook. It was just a beautiful shot, played half way between the front foot and the back with remarkable economy of effort. Sobers was able to read both spin and swing quickly and accurately. He was also an excellent judge of length and line. He could thus score at a reasonable rate while still apparently focusing on defence. In this respect, he perhaps came closer than any other batsman to Donald Bradman in the ability to combine assault with safety. And yet, with all of these fundamentals securely in place from as early as 1952, Gary failed to score a century in any Test innings until his 17th match, in March 1958, against Pakistan at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica. For such inexplicable tardiness he atoned with interest. He scored more runs on that occasion than any other batsman had previously done in a single Test innings. His 365 not out was destined to last for more than 36 years before Brian Lara eclipsed it in April 1994. It was one of the longest standing batting records in the history of Test cricket. By 1960 Sobers was everywhere acknowledged as the world’s greatest batsman. His appetite for runs allowed him to boost his totals far beyond anything that had previously been accomplished by a West Indian. The great Everton DeCourcey Weekes, for instance, had established the old West Indian Test record of 4,555 runs during 1948-58. By the time of Sobers’s retirement, his Test aggregate had reached 8,032. This was then a world record. It has since been exceeded seven times but only by batsmen playing many more innings. His 26 Test centuries stood second only to Bradman’s 29 before 7