Garfield Sobers

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Sir Garfield Sobers
West Indies
Personal information
Full name	Garfield St. Auburn Sobers
Nickname	Garry Sobers
Born	28 July 1936 (1936-07-28) (age 71)
	Bridgetown, Barbados
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Role	All-rounder
Batting style	Left-handed
Bowling style	Left-arm fast medium Slow left-arm orthodox Slow left-arm chinaman
International information
Test debut (cap 84)	30 March 1954: v England
Last Test	5 April 1974: v England
ODI debut (cap 11)	5 September 1973: v England
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1952 – 1974	Barbados
1968 – 1974	Nottinghamshire
1961 – 1964	South Australia
1961 – 1962	MCC
Career statistics
	Tests	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	93	1	383	95
Runs scored	8032	0	28314	2721
Batting average	57.78	0.00	54.87	38.32
100s/50s	26/30	0/0	86/121	1/18
Top score	365*	0	365*	116*
Balls bowled	21599	63	70789	4387
Wickets	235	1	1043	109
Bowling average	34.03	31.00	27.74	21.95
5 wickets in innings	6	–	36	1
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	1	n/a
Best bowling	6/73	1/31	9/49	5/43
Catches/stumpings	109/–	1/–	407/–	41/–
As of 13 September 2007 Source: Cricinfo

Sir Garfield St Auburn Sobers, AO (born July 28, 1936 in Bridgetown, Barbados), often known as Garry Sobers (though earlier in his life he preferred the spelling Gary), is a former West Indies cricketer, widely regarded as the greatest all-rounder (batsman and bowler) the game has ever seen.

Sobers was born with two extra fingers, one on each hand, which were removed at birth. Besides cricket, he also excelled at other sports, and played golf, football, basketball, table tennis and dominoes for Barbados.^[1]

Sobers was a cricket all-rounder, excelling at both batting and bowling. He was also an outstanding fielder, usually fielding close to the wicket.^{[citation needed]} Sobers was a talented left-handed batsman, with a superb career Test batting average of 57.78, one of the highest reached by any player. He scored 8,032 runs in his career, which was a record at the time. Sobers was also a versatile bowler, taking 235 Test wickets at an average of 34.03. He bowled left-arm spin and also left-arm fast-medium.

Sobers played his first Test Match in 1953 aged 17. Just under five years later, in 1958 he set a Test cricket record by scoring 365 runs in 614 minutes in a single innings that included 38 fours and, interestingly, not one six against Pakistan. It was his first Test century, and a record which stood for over 36 years, until it was surpassed by Brian Lara. However, Sobers' innings still remains the highest maiden Test century ever. He played his last Test in 1974 against England in Trinidad.

In 1968 Sobers became the first ever batsman to hit six sixes off one over of six consecutive balls in first-class cricket. His knock consisted of five clean sixes and one parried over the rope by Roger Davis.^[2] Sobers was playing as captain of Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in Swansea; the unfortunate bowler was Malcolm Nash. This tally of 36 runs off an over beat a 57 year-old record of 34 runs, held by Ted Alletson.

In the New Year Honours 1975 Queen Elizabeth II created Sobers a Knight Bachelor for his services to the sport.^[3] The award was made in the British Diplomatic and Overseas section of the list, rather than on the nomination of the Government of Barbados, which had stopped putting forward recommendations for British honours, this caused the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office some unease as shown by papers released by The National Archives in 2005, however since Barbados had not yet introduced its own system of honours, the Prime Minister of Barbados was pleased that an honour would be forthcoming for Sobers.^[4] The award was originally intended to be made in the 1975 Queen's Birthday Honours, but since there was a royal visit to Barbados planned for February 1975, it was moved forward to the New Year list so that Sobers could be knighted by the Queen in person during the visit, the very short turnaround between the decision to make the award and its announcement meant that the Governor-General of Barbados was not informed of the award before the public announcement, which caused some hurt feelings between London and Bridgetown.^[4][5] In 2003 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, where he played many first-class games for South Australia.^[6][7]

He is the author of a children's novel about cricket, Bonaventure and the Flashing Blade, in which computer analysis helps a university cricket team become unbeatable.

In 2000 Sobers was named by a 100-member panel of experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. Sobers received 90 votes out of a possible 100. The other four cricketers selected for the honour were Sir Donald Bradman (100 votes - out of 100 possible), Sir Jack Hobbs (30 votes), Shane Warne (27 votes) and Sir Vivian Richards (25 votes).

He was made a National Hero of Barbados by Prime Minister Owen Arthur in 1999.

He has two sons, Matthew and Daniel, and a daughter, Genevieve.

Garry Sobers's career performance graph.

A graph showing Sobers' test career bowling statistics and how they have varied over time.

[edit] References

1. ^ Garry Sobers: My Autobiography - book review at Amazon,com
2. ^ BBC Archive - 1968 footage of Sir Garfield Sobers hitting six sixes in one over
3. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 46444, pages 1–2, 31 December 1974. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
4. ^ ^{a b} Catalogue data for file FCO 57/606, pdf copy of full document relating to award of knighthood to Sir Garfield Sobers (fee required to view pdf)
5. ^ London Gazette: no. 46502, page 2671, 27 February 1975. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
6. ^ Australian Government—It's an honour—Australia Celebrating Australians. Entry for SOBERS, Garfield St Aubrun. Retrieved 2008-04-27
7. ^ BBC Archive - Order of Australia appointment