The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket

Sobers – Batting Supremo

Mon, Jul 28, ’25

by FRANK A. DENBOW, MD, MRCP

Garry Sobers was an extraordinary batsman.We first have to understand the circumstances of the teenaged Garry Sobers to fully appreciate what he accomplished.

Garry made his first class debut for Barbados versus the visiting Indian touring  team at Kensington Oval at the age of 16 years 187 days as a slow left arm orthodox spin bowler who batted at number 9.

The next year he made his test debut versus England at Sabina Park Jamaica at the age of 17 years  245 days replacing the injured Alfred Valentine where he again batted at number 9.When Sobers made his test debut, he had played two first class matches.

Overall Test Career

Peak Period (January 1958 – December 1968)

After Age 21

Notable Series Performances

Versus Pakistan 1958

• 5 Matches, 8 Innings, 2 Not Out
• Highest Score: 365*
• Aggregate: 824 runs
• Average: 137.33
• Centuries: 3, Half-centuries: 3

Versus England 1960

• 5 Matches, 8 Innings, 1 Not Out
• Highest Score: 226
• Aggregate: 709 runs
• Average: 101.29
• Centuries: 3, Half-centuries: 1

Versus England 1966

• 5 Matches, 8 Innings, 1 Not Out
• Highest Score: 174
• Aggregate: 722 runs
• Average: 103.14
• Centuries: 3, Half-centuries: 2

When Sobers retired after 20 years, in the spring of 1974 with 8,032 runs, he was the only person to have scored 8,000 runs in test cricket.Two other men had scored 7,000 test runs.They were Colin Cowdrey who had scored 7,459 runs and Wally Hammond who had scored 7,249 runs and had retired in 1947 after 85 test matches.Sobers has the highest test average of all who have scored 8,000 runs.

Scoring 700 runs in a series of 5 or less tests has been accomplished 29 times. Sobers has done it 3 times. Only Bradman with 5 times has done it as many times. Lara, Steve Smith Gavaskar and Weekes have done it twice.

Sobers did not just score a lot of runs, he did it with style and incredible panache. He played incredible innings against everybody, sometimes on terrible wickets and especially when there was pressure, some self-imposed. Here are some notable innings:

1. 365 vs Pakistan (1958)* To break the existing batting record of Len Hutton who scored 364 in 1938, some 20 years earlier. Sobers was 21 years old at the time and had never scored a test century before.

2. 198 vs India, Kanpur (December 1958) After both teams scored 222 in their first innings, Sobers arrived at the wicket in the second innings with West Indies zero runs for 2 wickets and later found himself with West Indies 83-4. He then scored 198 before he was run out with the score 360 for 6 and in the process, demystified Subhash Gupte, who had taken 9 wickets in the first innings.

3. 132 vs Australia (1960-61) On the first day of the first test, he dominated both Richie Benaud and Alan Davidson, moving the latter to say it was one of the best 5 innings he had ever seen. Sobers scored 132 out of 197 total runs scored when he was at the wicket.

4. 155 for South Australia vs South Africans Sobers asked his captain Les Favell to allow him to wear his West Indies cap when he went out to bat. Permission was granted and Sobers flayed the South Africans, sending the message that non-white batsmen could play cricket as well as anybody.

5. 163 at Lord’s vs England* In an unbroken partnership of 274 with cousin David Holford playing his second test match. The records will show that this was Holford’s only test century and he only seemed to be able to bat when Sobers was at the other end. This is illustrated by the fact that in his test career Holford was involved in four century partnerships and the first three were with Sobers and the last with Hendriks. Sobers was clearly inspirational and many lower order batsmen such as Hall and Griffith played crucial innings batting with Sobers.

6. 174 at Headingley (1966) Between lunch and tea he scored 103 runs on Day 2 versus England. He also took 8 wickets in the match including 5-41, ending the England first innings with 3 wickets in 7 balls for no runs.

7. 113 at Sabina Park* After the wicket had deteriorated significantly to the point that after Sobers declared, England held out for a draw with the score at 68-8.

8. 183 at Lord’s vs England (1970) On day 2 after taking 6-21 on day 1. He hit 30 fours and two sixes in 4 hours and 40 minutes of pure mayhem.

9. 254 for Rest of the World at Melbourne An innings described by Bradman as the best innings in Australia (1930-1972).

10. 150 at Lord’s (1973)* In his farewell test in England at age 37 with a scoring rate of 66.

How does Sobers rate in the Pantheon of Batsmanship?

Clearly Sir Donald Bradman is unquestionable as the Greatest Batsman of all times. Who is second?

Prior to the Bradman era was Sir Jack Hobbs. During the Bradman era was Wally Hammond. After the Bradman era came Sir Leonard Hutton, then Sir Garfield Sobers, and then Sir Vivian Richards followed by Tendulkar and Lara.

Best Test Batsmen (January 1958 – December 1974)

Qualification: 3000 runs

Clearly he was the best batsman of his era.

The case for Sobers being second only to Bradman is very strong on all wickets against all opposition.No bowler had his number.The bowler who got him out the most was Freddie Trueman who dismissed him 7 times, twice after he had scored a century.They played 16 test matches against each other and Sobers scored 1,391 runs at an average of 53.50 with 4 centuries and 5 half-centuries. Trueman did take 81 wickets in those 16 test matches at 21.30 apiece showing he is one of the greatest fast bowlers of all times.

I have seen Viv Richards, Tendulkar and Lara so it is fairly easy for me to say that all things being considered that Sobers was better than them.Obviously I did not see Hutton Hobbs or Hammond but none of them seemed to possess the dominating batting of either Sobers, Richards or Lara.

Hammond had a recorded scoring rate against Australia of 38.07 which is very slow.Also his record against the West Indies is mediocre.He averages 35 in 13 test matches with a single century and a single half-century and was dismissed by Learie Constantine eight times.Len Hutton was a batsman more in the mold of Geoff Boycott his fellow Yorkshireman and took more than 2 days and 847 balls to score 364 whereas Sobers took 614 balls for his 365*.I looked at all 19 of Hutton’s test centuries and they were all unremarkable.

Jack Hobbs on the other hand was a very enterprising opening batsman, unlike Hutton and Hammond.Most of his hundreds were scored at a strike rate of greater than 50 and some were over 60.He was a very consistent batsman but never dominated a series anywhere like how Sobers did.

Richards though just as dominant was never as consistent as Sobers and had 24 Centuries in 121 tests as compared with Sobers 26 in 93.He also scored 3 centuries in only 2 test series in 1976 compared to Sobers 5 and scored multiple centuries in only 3 series as compared to Sobers doing so in 9 test series.

Tendulkar was remarkably consistent but did not scale the heights that Richards, Sobers and Lara did.He played numerous very good innings but none that are as memorable as some played by the West Indian trio.

It is therefore my opinion that Garfield St. Aubyn Sobers is the Greatest Batsman of all times except for Sir Donald Bradman. Incidentally this view is shared by numerous former cricketers such as Ian Chappell, Mike Proctor,Clive Lloyd,Sunil Gavaskar, Martin Crowe and Graham McKenzie as well as countless others who saw him bat.

As I said earlier the case for Sobers being the second best batsman after Bradman is strong.However we all watch cricket for the entertainment and Garfield St. Aubyn Sobers was the batsman of all batsmen many  wanted to watch.

Bishen Singh Bedi the great left arm spinner from India said that of all the eleven men in the West Indies team the one he could not keep his eyes off was Sobers, whether he was batting, bowling or fielding ,he was just majestic.

Tomorrow Garry Sobers celebrates his 89th Birthday and not just West Indians but all who love this great game of cricket are grateful for the career of the greatest cricketer who ever lived.In the Immortal word of the Mighty Sparrow, The Greatest Cricketer on Earth or Mars-Sir Garfield St. Aubyn Sobers.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR GARRY

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