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 | -- |
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.