The 'ultimate all-round sportsman' - Sobers could do it all
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- Sir Garfield Sobers died at 89 and was named one of Wisden's five cricketers of the 20th century, with only South Africa's Jacques Kallis considered a serious rival to his all-rounder crown.
- In March 1958, Sobers aged 21 scored 365 not out against Pakistan at Sabina Park, breaking Len Hutton's Test record of 364 — a mark that stood until Brian Lara surpassed it in 1994.
- On 31 August 1968, Sobers became the first man to hit six sixes in an over in professional cricket, off Glamorgan seamer Malcolm Nash at Swansea; a ball purportedly from that over later sold at Christie's for £26,400, though journalist Grahame Lloyd's investigation concluded the wrong ball was auctioned.
- Across 93 Tests spanning 20 years, Sobers scored 8,032 runs at an average of 57.78 with 26 centuries and took 235 wickets, bowling left-arm fast-medium, orthodox left-arm spin, and left-arm wrist-spin.
- Sobers captained West Indies from 1965 and led them to a 3-1 series win in England in 1966; he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II during a royal visit to Barbados in 1975, and was also named a National Hero of Barbados and an Officer of the Order of Australia.
- Sobers played county cricket for Nottinghamshire from 1968 to 1974 and coached Sri Lanka in the early 1980s during their early years as a Test nation; Sir Donald Bradman called his double century for a Rest of the World XI against Australia in 1972 'probably the greatest exhibition of batting ever seen in Australia.'
Why it matters: Sobers' death at 89 removes the last towering figure of West Indies' cricketing golden era, and cricket loses the only player to combine top-class batting, three distinct bowling styles, and elite fielding in a single package — a benchmark Don Bradman himself rated the greatest exhibition of batting he had witnessed in Australia, and one the source says only Jacques Kallis has since approached.
