Sir Garfield Sobers, the great West Indies cricketer widely regarded as the finest all-rounder in the sport’s history, has died aged 89. His death at his home in Barbados 11 days short of his 90th birthday was announced by Cricket West Indies on Friday with the simple line: “A great innings has come to an end. In our hearts, now and forever, Sir Garfield Sobers.”
The Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, paid tribute to Sobers in a post on social media and said that Friday has been declared a day of national mourning – flags will be flown at half-mast and no official functions will take place. A state funeral will follow in the coming days.
Sobers was the first batter to hit six sixes in an over when playing for Nottinghamshire at Glamorgan’s St Helen’s ground in Swansea in 1968. But it was just one of many feats in an illustrious career featuring 93 Test matches for West Indies, including 39 as captain, from 1954 to 1974.
Former Australia captain Richie Benaud once described Sobers as “the greatest all-round cricketer the world has seen”. Benaud wrote: “Sobers was a brilliant batsman, splendid fielder, particularly close to the wicket, and a bowler of extraordinary skill, whether bowling with the new ball, providing orthodox left-arm spin or over-the-wrist spin.”
From a humble background, Sobers first caught the eye playing club cricket, before turning out for the Barbados police aged 15 and making his first-class debut a year later against India at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown. His Test debut for West Indies aged 17 followed in 1954 against Len Hutton’s England at Sabina Park in Jamaica.
His maiden Test century against Pakistan at the same ground in 1958 secured his place in history early: an unbeaten 365 that set the record for the highest individual Test score. It stood for 36 years until Brian Lara’s 375 against England in Antigua broke it in 1994, with Sobers at the ground to congratulate him.
“I had to be there for Brian,” Sobers said in 2002. “There was a lot of pressure on him, people telling him not to break the record, to preserve it for the legend. So I spoke to him in the dressing room during his innings and said: ‘Go out and do it, man.’ Records are there to be broken. I don’t cling to the idea that nobody else can do that.”
Overall, the left-handed Sobers scored 8,032 Test runs at an average of 57.78 – the fourth-highest average in history among players with over 5,000 runs – and took 235 wickets at 34.03. In 383 first-class matches, including time with South Australia and Nottinghamshire, he scored more than 28,000 runs and took more than 1,000 wickets.
On his record six sixes in an over for Notts, hit off the bowling of Malcolm Nash in 1968, Sobers said: “It was only about the fifth six that I thought: ‘Here’s something that hasn’t been done, why not try it?”
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