By Clayton Goodwin
The most talented figure to grace the playing field
In his passing Sir Garfield Sobers – Garry Sobers – has generated almost as many words and phrases as the runs, wickets and catches that he achieved on the field of play. “Almost” is illustrative because nothing can come close to matching the harvest he gleaned with bat and ball. Suffice to say that his achievements have been covered in words and speech so extensively, in both detail and emotion, that there is little than I can add. It is as if I were the batsman at the other wicket when he was on the rampage. Mine is a non-speaking part. Just think of the star that were playing in the minor key when he was at the crease. Therefore, I have restricted myself to recording those moments of Sobers’ supremacy that have matched memories in my own life.
There is no doubt that the left-handed Barbadian has been the most talented cricketer ever to grace the playing-field. Ah, grace, the “old man”, himself, Dr W.G. Grace might have had a word or two to say about that. Nevertheless, although the Champion of yore was supreme as batsman, bowler and fieldsman, he did have the variations of style and performance as did Sobers, who could bat, with brilliant attack or resolute defence, anywhere in the order, bowl with variations of pace or spin, and field in just about any position. He was also a good team player, who lacked the ego-centrist approach of some other players of excellence. He came from humble circumstances, achieved great things, set records, and remained humble.
Capable of scoring the odd run or two
Early in 1957, as I, then a schoolboy, waited for the bus to take me to church choir-practice in my small Kentish village, my father showed me a newspaper report of the West Indies team to tour England that coming summer. It was a dark winter night and we had to hold the newspaper up to the beam of the street-lamp to read it properly. Among the names of the proven champions – Worrell, Weekes, Walcott, Ramadhin, Valentine – there were those of the new generation expected to take their place. One of them was that of a young Garfield Auburn Sobers, whom we could remember, just, as the 17 year-old left-arm spinner who had replaced the indisposed Valentine against England at Sabina Park a year or two earlier. We had heard, also, that he was capable of scoring the odd run or two.
I caught my first sight of Sobers when West Indies fielded on the first day of the Fifth Test match at the Oval. It wasn’t a day for the tourists to remember with any satisfaction as Tom Graveney and Peter Richardson piled on the runs against them. The next two days were even worse as West Indies crumpled to an overwhelming innings defeat – being dismissed for 89 and 86. Yet, even amid that debacle, as wickets crashed to left-arm spin of Tony Lock, with the dubious action, on an atrociously ill-prepared pitch, young Garry, top-scorer in each innings, showed prescient signs of resolution, talent and a determination to fight. He was the promise of the future. Before the week was out I saw him also open the batting with Bruce Pairaudeau against Kent at Canterbury. “Sobers, undoubtedly, was a very fine stroke-player who should go far” wrote Wisden, the cricketers’ bible, of that tour.
West Indies would make somebody pay for that humiliation. That “somebody” was Pakistan on their first tour to the region. Early honours went to the visitors as Hanif Mohammad threatened to take the world’s highest individual record – then held by Len Hutton (364) – by scoring 337 at Bridgetown. At Kingston two matches later Sobers swept past that landmark by hitting 365, and, to prove that it wasn’t a fluke, he scored a hundred in each innings of the next Test at Georgetown. He carried that form over into the following twin-tour of India and Pakistan. The young man could truly score a run or two. Yet the dream of Sobers, Collie Smith and Rohan Kanhai inheriting the mantle of the illustrious 3-Ws would not be realised.
The runs he scored for Collie
In September 1959, Sobers was at the wheel of the car in the early hours driving himself with colleagues Smith and Tom Dewdney to a charity event when the vehicle was involved in the accident which cost the genial Collie Smith his life. Distressed, Sobers felt like walking away from the game. He was persuaded otherwise by – it is said – Frank Worrell who told him that he would now have to score double the runs and take double the wickets, those for himself and those his colleague Smith would have taken. In the next Test they played (against England at Bridgetown), Sobers and Worrell shared a partnership just one run short of 400. I am sure Smith would have approved.
By the winter of 1960/61, I was a student in London and, like cricket fans (and more) the world over, listened avidly to radio commentaries and read newspaper reports of the legendary Australia v West Indies series “Down Under”. We learned how Sobers’ quite brilliant century had set up the history-making “Tied Test” at Brisbane, how even that splendour had been eclipsed by his 168 in the victory at Sydney, and how he had taken 5 wickets in an innings – he could bowl at bit as well – in the concluding contest at Melbourne. There were also a good few catches along the way. Has there ever been a more popular team than Worrell’s West Indians? Not in my life-time, and I cannot conceive of how there could ever be.
Sobers stood alone with Eusebio and Muhammad Ali
Garry Sobers had an integral role in the 1963 series in England which has been described, and rarely challenged, as being the most exciting and sporting in cricket history. It was a summer so dear to me, as at Lord’s and the Oval I had a ring-side seat in the press-box reporting my first Test match. Three years later Sobers returned as captain of the triumphant team which swept the board. His achievements, the greatest all-round performance ever witnessed, are etched in memories and history. Suffice to say that when boxing legend Muhammad Ali and star footballer Eusebio – in the World Cup – were displaying their talents in the country at this same time, Garry Sobers held his own with the best brilliance that sport has ever shown (and, probably, more than held his own).
The Barbadian continued to shine at the highest level for almost another decade – ending his international career with an unbeaten 150 at Lord’s in 1973. Outside Test competition his feats included hitting 6 sixes in an over for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan at Swansea, and, in Australia, where he played several seasons for South Australia, striking 254 for the Rest of the World against Australia at Melbourne – an innings which Donald Bradman, the only man who could bear comparison to him as a batsman, described as the greatest innings he had seen. Garfield St Auburn Sobers was known for enjoying life, drink and the company of ladies, and playing cricket with panache and power at all level from competition throughout the world.
In the twilight of life
In the twilight of life – his and my own – I came across the greatest cricketer the world has known several times at the regular charity games put on by the Barbados High Commission / Tourism Board in London. I think the last occasion was at Beckenham. His presence was so unassuming that my wife stood next to the great man without recognising him. As to my own favourite recollection, it was probably that young batsman standing upright among the carnage at the Oval in 1957 and showing the promise of what was to come. A promise that was more than adequately fulfilled. His 274 partnership with his cousin David Holford at Lord’s in 1966 to save the match and set up a winning chance. Then, of course, there was all those runs, the wickets and the catches. The world will never see his like again, and we can feel privileged that we have shared this generation with him.
Comment from Donald Menzies: Great write up about the Greatest. Thanks for sharing.
(Thank you Donald)