Sir Garfield St Auburn Sobers, AO, OCC (born 28 July 1936), celebrated his 96th birthday this past July 28, 2022. Among those who visited the Great Man to extend their very best wishes was none other than another legendary West Indies batsman and former captain, Brian Charles Lara.
It was the very same Lara who had in 1994 broken Sir Gary’s longstanding record of thirty-six years for the highest individual score in Tests. Sobers’ unbeaten 365 made against Pakistan in March 1958, was finally surpassed by Lara’s 375 not out versus England in 1994.
Also known as Sir Gary, Sobers, played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. As a highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman, and an excellent fielder, he is now universally considered to be cricket’s very best ever all-rounder and one of the greatest cricketers of all time.
Born in the island’s capital city Bridgetown, Sobers made his first-class debut for the Barbados cricket team in 1953 at the age of 16 and his Test debut for the West Indies against the Len Hutton-led England the following year. Originally playing mainly as a bowler, he was soon promoted up the batting order.
Against Pakistan in 1958, Sobers scored his maiden Test century, progressing to 365 not out, surpassing Len Hutton’s previously set 364 as the highest individual score in Tests. Sobers was made captain of the West Indies in 1965, a role which he held until 1972. He also captained a Rest of the World XI during their 1970 tour of England.
Overall, Sobers played 93 Tests for the West Indies, scoring 8032 runs at an average of 57.78, and taking 235 wickets at an average of 34.03. He has the fifth-highest batting average in Test cricket in the list of cricketers with more than 5,000 runs. In his 383 first-class matches, he scored over 28,000 runs and took over 1000 wickets, having spent time with South Australia and Nottinghamshire towards the end of his career.
Sobers was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975 for his services to cricket. He became a dual Barbadian-Australian citizen through marriage in 1980.
By an act of Parliament in 1998, Sir Gary Sobers was named as one of the eleven National Heroes of Barbados. In 2009, Sobers was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.