Last Friday, July 17, news filtered through at the Oval that Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers had died, aged 89. A few days earlier, I had wondered about the state of his declining health. It was a sad moment.
Along with many others, I am certain beyond doubt that he was the finest all-round cricketer that I have ever seen. In his case, all-rounder meant that he was worth his place on the strength of both his batting and his bowling. He did both as a left-hander and could bowl left arm pace with swing and then turn into a left arm spinner, deploying either finger or wrist spin. His fielding close to the wicket was superb in its anticipation and cat-like in its agility. His body language spelt grace, elegance and languidity.
Unsurprisingly, there has been an outpouring of obituaries and tributes. There is a common theme running through them, not just about his cricketing greatness but also his personality and love of life away from the pitch. Ever since September 1959, he carried the memory of the death of his best friend, Collie Smith, in a car accident in which Sobers was the driver. It was early morning on the way from Lancashire, where both were playing league cricket, to a charity match in London. At first, the collision with a cattle truck had seemed to generate only minor injuries, but Smith had received spinal injuries which soon proved fatal.
Sobers was so traumatized that his drinking and gambling increased. Thankfully, he pulled around and became dedicated to playing for both himself and Smith. Prior to the incident, Sobers’ talent had already been etched into the record books. On March 1, 1958, he scored an unbeaten 365 against Pakistan in a Test match in Kingston, Jamaica, breaking the previous world Test record of 364 set by Sir Leonard Hutton in 1938. Sobers batted for 614 minutes and scored 38 fours but no sixes. He was 21 years and 216 days old, becoming the first person in test history to convert a maiden test century into a triple century. Between 1960 and 1964, he continued to scale the heights. In the 1960-61 series against Australia, he scored 430 runs, including a superb century on the first day of the First Test at Brisbane, a match which produced the first ever tied Test.
His performances led him to receive an invitation from Sir Donald Bradman to play for South Australia in 1961–62. In three seasons, his impact was sensational, achieving the double of 1,000 runs and 50 wickets in two of them. Attendances rose by 89 percent and gate receipts by over 200 percent. Sobers topped both the batting and bowling averages at South Australia for two years, inspiring the team to win the Sheffield Shield in 1963–64. In 1964, he was elected Wisden Cricketer of the Year, a regular sobriquet and, somewhat reluctantly, took over the West Indies captaincy in 1965, serving until 1972. As befits his cricket style, Sobers was an adventurous captain, an approach which led to unexpected outcomes, such as a generous declaration which allowed England to win a decisive match in Port-of-Spain in March 1968.
In 1968, each county cricket club was allowed to sign a non-English player. Naturally, Sobers was in huge demand, with approaches from seven counties. It was Nottinghamshire who won the race, a county that had enjoyed little success for years. Sobers was appointed captain and said that he looked forward to restoring the county’s fortunes. Rumors circulated that he had signed a three-year contract worth £7,000 per year, along with an apartment and a car, a package approaching £200,000 in today’s values ($267,000). Nottinghamshire’s supporters, me included, looked forward to not only watching Sobers in action, but to a restoration of fortunes. In 1968, the county finished fourth in the county championship, its highest position for many years.
Several acquaintances of mine were on the county’s books during the Sobers era. One of them had only one season, 1969, when he was permanently 12th man. He understood horse racing and was the runner to the betting shop for his captain. When Sobers was on the field of play, he would signal for his 12th man. There was no discussion of cricket tactics, just betting. Sobers promised his runner that he would ensure that he would play at least once for the county. The promise was honored. Eager to know the opponents, Sobers smiled and quietly said it was the West Indies.
The necessity for Sobers to have a bookies runner was corroborated by Derek Randall, one of Nottinghamshire’s favourite sons. In his autobiography, “Rags or Arkle,” as he was nicknamed, corroborated this by revealing that he was the chosen 12th man in 1971. Famed for his quicksilver fielding, Randall said that “my ability to field came second to my speed in the opposite direction — in and out of the ground. Another story about the pair relates to Randall’s impish, nervous, never stay still, personality.” Once he irritated Sobers to the point where he was made to dash to fieldling positions at opposite ends of the ground between overs. After a few overs of this, Randall was spotted riding a bike around the boundary. It is clear that Randall revered Sobers, describing his technique as one in which “he used the bat like a golf club, ending his shot with the bat round his neck.” Sobers’ high back-lift and flamboyant follow-through sum up his batting style.
They also illustrate the power of his technique. Two legendary examples linger. One is his famous six sixes in an over for Notts against Glamorgan at Swansea on Aug. 31, 1968. Sobers became the first batter to achieve this feat in first-class cricket. Another of my acquaintances had the good fortunate to observe this from the non-striker’s end, describing Sobers’s hitting as savage. No one seems to know if a bet was involved. The second example occurred in January 1972 in the third unofficial Test between Australia and The World XI at Melbourne, when Sobers was nearing the end of his career. Dennis Lillie, a young, very fast bowler sparred with Sobers, having the temerity to bowl bouncers at him. Sobers did the same to Lillie and then scored 254 to win the match in an innings described by Don Bradman as “probably the greatest exhibition of batting ever seen in Australia.” Lillie was suitably chastened and left in awe.
When someone with the gravitas of Bradman provides such an accolade it adds strength to the view that Sobers was the finest cricketer of all time. Sir Geoffrey Boycott is of that view, as is former Australian captain Ian Chappell, a long-time friend of Sobers. If he had a weakness, it was early in his innings against a moving ball. This was hardly a surprise given his penchant for long nights of enjoyment. In addition to his cricketing abilities and joie-de-vivre, Sobers is remembered for his humility and lack of bombast. Michael Holding, former West Indian fast bowler summed this up in saying: “I remember him as a great, who never spoke about himself. Never kept telling people what happened ‘in his time.’ He left others to talk about his greatness.”
His peers regarded him as peerless. The extended applause from spectators in Birmingham at the T20 Blast finals day, after a minute’s silence for Sobers, left no doubt that the view of his peers is universally shared. My sadness at his passing is tempered by the knowledge that I was fortunate to watch this unique cricketer in action more than once.
