Garfield Sobers

From Free net encyclopedia

For more coverage of cricket, go to the Cricket portal. Template:Infobox Cricketer Sir Garfield St Auburn Sobers, (born July 28, 1936 in Barbados), Garry Sobers (though earlier in his life he preferred the spelling Gary), was a West Indies cricketer. He was born with two extra fingers, one on each hand, which were removed at birth. He also excelled at other sports, and played golf, football, basketball and dominoes for Barbados. He is universally regarded as one of the most exceptional players ever to grace the game.

Sobers was a true all-rounder, he both batted and bowled, and was also an outstanding fielder, usually fielding close to the wicket. With the ball, Sobers performed superbly, taking 235 Test wickets at an average of 34.03. He bowled left-arm orthodox spin, left-arm unorthodox spin, and also left-arm fast-medium. Sobers was also exceptionally talented with the bat, with a career Test batting average of 57.78. He scored a then-record 8032 runs in his career.

Sobers played his first Test match in 1953, aged only 17. Just under five years later, in 1958, Sobers 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. The record has since been surpassed twice by Brian Lara, also of the West Indies, who scored 375 and 400 not out in 1994 and 2004 respectively, and Matthew Hayden of Australia who scored 380 in 2003.

In 1968, Sobers became the first ever batsman to hit six sixes off one over of six consecutive balls in first-class cricket. Sobers was playing as captain of Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in Swansea; the unfortunate bowler was Malcolm Nash. This feat has since been matched only once, by Ravi Shastri, playing for Bombay against Baroda in 1984.

He played his last Test in 1974 against England, in Trinidad.

In 1975, Queen Elizabeth awarded Sobers a knighthood for his services to the sport. Template:Infobox Cricketer (Career) 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.

Image:Garry Sobers Graph.png

Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:End box

[edit]