"I played the game not to become the greatest of anything, I played because I loved it": Gary Sobers

[Abdullah719]

"I played the game not to become the greatest of anything, I played because I loved it": Gary Sobers

YOU’RE more likely to find Sir Garfield Sobers on the golf course than around a cricket field these days.

And that’s exactly why the West Indies legend believes day-night Test matches are the best way forward for the sport.

The man regarded as the greatest all-rounder in cricket history made a whirlwind visit to Townsville yesterday for a sportsman lunch hosted by the Castle Hill Club at Ignatius Park College.

Sobers delighted local cricket fans with tales from his incredible 20-year first-class career at the long lunch officiated by renowned cricket commentator Peter Meares.

The 80-year-old Barbados resident is in the country to be a guest of Cricket Australia at the Gabba when the home side takes on Pakistan in the day-night Test from Thursday.

With a Test batting average of 57.78 including 26 centuries and 235 wickets bowling both pace and spin, Sobers understands the game like few others, but he admitted other passions now fill his time during the day when cricket is most often played.

Test matches are struggling for relevance across the world, most notably in Sobers’ native West Indies, and he believed the day-night contests would help open up cricket to a new generation.

“I am looking forward to it because I think it’s probably the way to go for the future,” Sobers said

“I believe there are a lot of countries who will benefit from it. I know we have fallen behind so badly and we don’t get many spectators watching cricket in the West Indies anymore.

“I have taken to golf and I spend most of my time on the golf course, but I still watch a lot of cricket. We’re very fortunate that cricket now is at night at home when it’s early morning in Australia

“I can watch cricket on those occasions and I watch it quite a bit, but after 12 o’clock at home, I don’t watch any cricket at all. I’m on the golf course.

“I think day-night cricket will help it tremendously because we’ll get the young kids saying to their parents: ‘I want to go and watch the cricket’ and being in the evening they’re not at school, so take them out. I think it will help.”

Sobers hasn’t visited Australia in more than 30 years, but he said he has a great respect for the way the game is played Down Under, having spent four seasons with South Australia in the Sheffield Shield in the early 1960s.

“I enjoyed playing here. I like the attitude and they play the game very hard,” he said.

“I think I learned a lot by playing here against the Australians. I played in their league and I enjoyed it too.”

Sobers still speaks with an obvious passion for cricket, but he does his best to avoid the inevitable questions about his status as one of the greatest players of all time.

“I am grateful to the people who think I am and I am contented the way I am,” Sobers offered modestly.

“I played the game not to become the greatest of anything. I played the game because I loved it and I was playing for my country.

“I don’t think at any stage that I ever played an innings for me. It was all for the team that I played for wherever that was.”

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...T71BzL4stX3m48zPQ&sig2=h2speJD-33VJ3djfarx_7Q

 

[MenInG]

Legendary player.

Expect to see more comments from him during the match. I just hope we can put up a display to honour his presence.

 

[Hitman]

Cricket's greatest genius.

 

[TQ89]

Extraordinary Gifted Player & True legend. You talk with any cricketer of the 1970's & ask em which player they idolized when they were teens, they all will tell you about this man

 

[Saj]

Different era now.

Many players playing just for the financial side of things and not because of pride.

I think many cricketers from around the world have a focus on becoming good T20 players and making as much money from franchise cricket, rather than becoming great Test cricketers.

 

[JaDed]

Different era now.

Many players playing just for the financial side of things and not because of pride.

I think many cricketers from around the world have a focus on becoming good T20 players and making as much money from franchise cricket, rather than becoming great Test cricketers.

Some players can also enjoy T20 cricket compared to test cricket,don't think that's wrong imo.Not everyone can has the talent to play tests and vice versa.

 

[Harsh Thakor]

Gary Sobers' 88th birthday today - greatest ever cricketer?

Sir Garfield St.Aubrun Sobers attained cricketing immortality, transcending boundaries no cricketer ever scaled in terms of all round cricketing skill, and art. Sobers could turn the complexion of match in all departments 360 degrees. For sheer aestheticism possibly no one surpassed Sobers in the world of sport.

Gary Sobers ended his test career scoring 8032 runs at an average of 57.78 and captured 235 wickets at an average of 34.03., in 93 tests. He also took 109 catches. Adding unofficial games for rest of the world Sobers scored 8620 runs at 58,63, and captured 256 wickets at 33.01.In terms of pure averages he is the best ever allrounder , but is superseded by Jacques Kallis,in terms of runs and wickets aggregate. Kallis has taken 292 wickets at 32. 65 and scored 13,289 runs at 55.37. In addition Kallis has 273 ODI scalps and 11,579 runs.

In first class cricket Sobers aggregated 28,314 runs, scoring 86 centuries, averaging a remarkable 54.87.He also captured 1043 wickets at an average of 27.74.It must be noted that Sobers played highly competitive country cricket in Australia for Sheffield Shield and in England for Nottinghamshire.

To me, figures do not illustrate Sobers’s towering supremacy over other contemporaries, or extent to which he was head and shoulders above any allrounder,in test cricketing history.

In peak periods possibly Ian Botham ,Imran Khan and Keith Miller could be as explosive match-winners, but overall never challenged Sobers’s phenomenal consistency of impact . Arguably, at peak all three were closest to Sobers.

Praiseworthy that Sobers averaged 77.42 in games won and scored 12 centuries. He captured 104 wickets at an average of around 24 in tests won, which is also remarkable. In both departments he has outclassed modern giant Jacques Kallis, as a pure match-winner. Kallis had better allround statistics but could not turn the complexion of game like Sobers. To date Sobers is the only allrounder ever to score 300 runs and take 20 wickets in a test series on 3 occasions.

In his peak period Sobers took all-round cricketing supremacy to regions unparalleled. From 1961 to 1968, Sobers scored 3,106 runs at 63.38 with 9 hundreds and captured 125 wickets at 27.93 with every type of bowling with 5 five-fors. During this period he held 60 catches as well. All this accomplished in just 33 Tests.

Sobers is a strong candidate for the 2nd best test batsmen of all time, to Bradman, when you compare his batting average or consistency to that of Brian Lara, or even Sachin Tendulkar. Both the Chappell brothers, Ian and Greg, rate him the best batsmen they ever saw. Sobers dealt with truly great bowlers like Alan Davidson , Fred Trueman or Subash Gupte,. From the 1958 Kingston test against Pakistan till the end of his career, Sobers scored 7,176 runs in 77 Tests at 62.94 with 26 hundreds.

Sobers does not have an outstanding bowling average like Imran or Hadlee,or Botham or Kapil Dev’s staggering haul. However we must remember again that in peak era he average around 27, capturing 4 wickets per test. Strike rates were also comparatively low in that period and Sobers had to compete with the likes of Wes Hall and Charlie Griffiths. Sobers could bowl almost as fast and effectively as Wasim Akram and Alan Davidson .

When ranking 100 greatest ever cricketers , John Woodcock, Cristopher Martin Jenkins rate him in 3rd place to Bradman and WG Grace, while David Gower places him only next to Bradman. In Richard Sydenham’s books of all-time team selections by former cricketers Sobers won 73 votes for a place in the all time XI, 20 more than Bradman. In test cricket, I rate Sobers the best cricketer ever, who could as an allround cricketer morally turn the complexion of the game than Bradman could do as a batsman.

What went against Sobers was his record as a Skipper. He lost series as captain, at home against England in 1967-68, in Australia in 1968-69 and at home against India in 1970. Sobers won only 3 series as a skipper out of a total of nine in which he lead his country. Still commendable that he averaged close to 59; in the 39 tests he led West Indies.