By FRANCIS JOSEPH
Former world record holder, Sir Garfield Sobers, has died.
Better known as Garry Sobers, he died two weeks before his 90th birthday on his island of Barbados. He died on Friday morning at his home in St Michael’s, Barbados.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders in the history of the sport, Sir Garry’s extraordinary career made him a towering figure in West Indies cricket and a source of immense pride for Barbados.
Sobers was born on the 28th of July 1936). He was a former Barbadian cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled and an aggressive batsman, a versatile bowler and an excellent fielder, he was widely considered to be cricket’s greatest ever all-rounder, and one of the greatest cricketers of all time.
Sobers made his first class debut for the Barbados cricket team at the age of 16 in 1953, and his test debut for the West Indies the following year. Originally playing mainly as a bowler, he was soon promoted up the batting order. Against Pakistan in 1958, Sobers scored his maiden Test century, progressing to 365 not out and establishing a new record for the highest individual score in an innings.
His record was not broken until Trinidadian Brian Lara scored 375 in 1994. Sobers was made captain of the West Indies in 1965, a role which he would hold until 1972. He would also captain a Rest of the World XI during their 1970 tour of England.
Overall, Sobers played 93 Tests for the West Indies, scoring 8032 runs at an average of 57.78, and taking 235 wickets at an average of 34.03. He had the fifth-highest batting average in Test cricket in the list of cricketers with more than 5,000 runs. In his 383 first-class matches, he scored over 28,000 runs and took over 1000 wickets, having spent time with South Australia and Nottinghamshire towards the end of his career.
Sobers was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975 for his services to cricket. He became a dual Barbadian-Australian citizen through marriage in 1980. By an act of Parliament in 1998, Sobers was named as one of the eleven National Heroes of Barbados. In 2009, Sobers was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
“A great innings has come to an end. In our hearts, now and forever, Sir Garfield Sobers,” Cricket West Indies said in a post on X.
