Sir Garfield Sobers

Who is Sir Garfield Sobers?

Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers was born on 28 July 1936 in Bay Land, Saint Michael, Bridgetown, the fifth of six children of a merchant seaman lost at sea during the Second World War. He made his first-class debut for Barbados at just sixteen years old in 1953 and his Test debut for the West Indies the following year, quickly establishing himself as one of the finest all-rounders the game has seen. In 1958, against Pakistan, he scored 365 not out, then a world-record individual Test innings. Over a career spanning ninety-three Tests he scored 8,032 runs at an average of 57.78 and took 235 wickets, while his first-class career brought more than 28,000 runs and over a thousand wickets, including spells with South Australia and Nottinghamshire. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975 for his services to cricket. In 1998, an Act of the Barbados Parliament named him one of the country's eleven National Heroes, and in 2000 a panel of experts named him one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.

Sources: Britannica, "Sir Garfield Sobers" · ESPNcricinfo / Wisden, "Five Cricketers of the Century: Sir Garfield Sobers" · Totally Barbados, "Sir Garfield Sobers – National Hero of Barbados"