Sir Garfield Sobers "36 IN A OVER IS EASY"

 

Sir Garfield St Auburn Sobers (born July 28, 1936 in Bridgetown, Barbados), often known as Garry Sobers (though earlier in his life he preferred the spelling Gary), is a former West Indies cricketer, widely regarded as the greatest all-rounder (batsman and bowler) the game has ever seen. He was born with two extra fingers, one on each hand, which were removed at birth. He also excelled at other sports, and played golf, football, basketball, table tennis and dominoes for Barbados. He is universally regarded as one of the most exceptional players ever to grace the game.

Cricket is bread and butter for him.






Sobers was a true all-rounder, he both batted and bowled, and was also an outstanding fielder, usually fielding close to the wicket. With the ball, Sobers performed superbly, taking 235 Test wickets at an average of 34.03. He bowled left-arm orthodox spin, left-arm unorthodox spin, and also left-arm fast-medium. Sobers was also exceptionally talented with the bat, with a career Test batting average of 57.78. He scored a then-record 8032 runs in his career. He played his last Test in 1974 against England, in Trinidad.



In 1968, Sobers became the first ever batsman to hit six sixes off one over of six consecutive balls in first-class cricket

In 1975 Queen Elizabeth II awarded Sobers a knighthood for his services to the sport. In 2003 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, where he played many first-class games for South Australia .

He was made a National Hero of Barbados by Prime Minister Owen Arthur in 1999

In 2000 Sobers was named by a 100-member panel of experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century

  

For all Sobers' many achievements, one that stands out, mainly because it was recorded by the BBC's cameras, came in 1968 when he became the first man to hit six sixes off a first-class over. Captaining Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan at Swansea, Sobers hit out in a bid for quick runs. The hapless bowler, Malcolm Nash, was a left-arm seamer who was experimenting with spin - "Sobers came along and quickly ended my slow-bowling career," he said. "It was a pretty short experiment." The fifth of the six was caught on the boundary edge but the fielder toppled over the rope. The sixth disappeared out of the ground and was returned a day later by a schoolboy who found it lying in the street.