Sobers - the figures speak for themselves

Garfield St Aubrun Sobers Born on July 28, 1936 at Bridgetown, Barbados.

Left-hand batsman, left-arm fast-medium, left-arm slow orthodox, left-arm chinaman and googly bowler; excellent close-in fielder.

First-class debut: For Barbados against India, January 31, 1953. Test debut: Fifth Test against England, March 30 to April 3, 1954.

Last first-class season: For Nottinghamshire in 1974. Last Test: Fifth Test against England, March 30 to April 5, 1974.

Teams: Barbados 1955-74, Nottinghamshire 1968-74, South Australia 1961-62 and 1963-64, Rest of the World XI, Commonwealth XI, Jamaican XI, Cavaliers XI, Conrad Hunte XI, A.E.R.Gilligan's XI, E.W. Swanton's XI.

Knighted in 1975. One of five West Indies players who have been honoured thus, the others being Learie Constantine, Frank Worrell, Clyde Walcott and Vivian Richards.

Career statistics



Batting: M I NO Runs 50s 100s HS Avge ct st
Tests: 93 160 21 8,032 30 26 365* 57.78 110 -
One-dayers: 1 1 - 0 - - - - 1 -
First-class 383 609 93 28,315 118 86 365* 54.87 407 -
Bowling Balls Mdns Runs Wkts 5WI 10WM Best Avge
Tests 21,599 973 7,999 235 6 - 6-73 34.03
One-dayers 63 3 31 1 - - 1-31 31.00
First-class - 2,893 28,941 1,043 36 1 9-49 27.74

For the Rest of the World vs England, 1970 - batting

Matches Innings NO Runs HS 100s 50s Avge Catches
5 9 1 588 183 2 3 73.50 7

For the Rest of the World vs England, 1970 - bowling

Matches Balls Maidens Runs Wickets 5WI Avge
5 1,636 106 452 21 1 21.52

Batting - by country

Country Tests Innings NO Runs HS 100s 50s Avge Catches
vs England 36 61 8 3,214 174 10 13 60.64 40
vs Australia 19 38 3 1,510 168 4 6 43.14 27
vs New Zealand 12 18 1 404 142 1 0 23.76 12
vs India 18 30 7 1,920 198 8 7 83.47 27
vs Pakistan 8 13 2 984 365* 3 4 89.45 4
In West Indies 44 75 14 4,075 365* 14 12 66.80 40
In Australia 10 20 0 927 168 4 3 46.35 18
In England 21 37 3 1,820 174 5 9 53.52 28
In India 8 13 4 899 198 3 5 99.88 12
In New Zealand 7 10 0 151 39 0 0 15.10 10
In Pakistan 3 5 0 160 72 0 1 32.00 2

Bowling - by country

Country Tests Balls Maidens Runs Wickets 5WI Avge
vs England 36 8,771 410 3,323 102 3 32.57
vs Australia 19 4,895 153 2,024 51 2 39.68
vs New Zealand 12 2,207 105 682 19 0 35.89
vs India 18 4,301 216 1,516 59 1 25.69
vs Pakistan 8 1,425 89 454 4 0 113.50
In West Indies 44 10,088 517 3,651 107 1 34.12
In Australia 10 3,177 64 1,321 33 2 40.03
In England 21 5,171 223 1,958 62 3 31.58
In India 8 1,646 84 642 24 0 26.75
In New Zealand 7 1,121 49 350 9 0 38.88
In Pakistan 3 396 36 77 0 0 --

Sobers played for South Australia from 1961-62 to 1963-64. Three seasons Down Under yielded the following figures:
26 games, 2,707 runs at 62.95, 10 centuries, a highest score of 251 and 137 wkts at 26.02, with a best of seven for 110. He took five wickets in an innings eight times.

In 1963-64 under the captaincy of the brilliant Les Favell, South Australia won the Sheffield Shield; Sobers's contribution to this was 1,128 runs in nine games at 80.57. He made 1,006 runs the season before and took 51 wickets in each of those two seasons. His 16 catches in the 1963-64 season was a South Australian record at the time. He holds the South Australian sixth wicket partnership record of 255 with Barry Jarman (v Western Australia at Perth 1963-64). The double of 1,000 runs and 50 wickets in an Australian first-class season is unique to Sobers.

For Barbados between 1952-53 and 1973-74, he played 30 games and scored 2,355 runs at 75.96, with a top score of 204 and eight centuries. He took 71 wickets at 30.04 with a best of six for 56 and had five wicket hauls in an innings twice. He was often away on tour apart from the three seasons which he played for South Australia.

Test captaincy record


HOME P W L D
v Aus 1965 5 2 1 2
v Eng 1968 5 0 1 4
v Ind 1971 5 0 1 4
v NZ 1972 5 0 0 5
Total 20 2 3 15
AWAY
in Eng 1966 5 3 1 1
in Ind 1966-67 3 2 0 1
in Aus 1968-69 5 1 3 1
in NZ 1969 3 1 1 1
in Eng 1969 3 0 2 1
Total 19 7 7 5
Grand total 39 9 10 20

First to hit six sixes in an over - for Nottinghamshire vs Glamorgan on August 31, 1968. The bowler was Malcolm Nash; the last hit went clean out of the ground! The ball could not be found that day; on Monday a small boy arrived at the ground and handed a ball to the Glamorgan secretary,Wilf Wooller. "Is this the ball that Mr Sobers hit for six on Saturday?" he asked. Wilf asked him where he had found it. "It was still rolling down the street when I picked it up," was the boy's reply. The ball was mounted and sent to theTrent Bridge Museum.

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