Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers also
known as
Gary or
Garry Sobers is a former
cricketer
who played for the
West Indies between 1954 and 1974, and is
widely considered one of cricket's greatest
all-rounders.
Born in
Bridgetown,
Barbados,
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,
which was not broken until
Brian Lara scored 375 in 1994. He 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. 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 ten
National Heroes of Barbados.

As a batsman he was
great, as a bowler, merely superb, but would have made the West Indies side as
a bowler alone. He was remarkably versatile with the ball, bowling two styles
of spin - left-arm orthodox and wrist spin, but was also a fine fast-medium opening
bowler.
Sobers gained useful
experience by bowling to Wanderers batsmen, including West Indies Test player
Denis
Atkinson, at practice in the nets and soon developed his great skill
as a left arm spin bowler. More importantly for his career, he was observed by
Inspector Wilfred Farmer, captain of the Police team in the BCL First Division.
Farmer offered Sobers a chance to play for Police in the 1951–52 season while
he was still only 15. In the 1952–53 season, Sobers was invited to the
Barbados trials for the colony's tour
match against the
Indian touring team at
Kensington
Oval,
Bridgetown. He was initially selected as 12th man but then
made the team itself when
Frank King was forced to withdraw. He
therefore made his
first-class debut on 31 January 1953, aged only
16. Batting at number nine, he scored 7 not out in his only innings but made an
immediate impression as a bowler, taking 4/50 and 3/92.
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