Cricket legend Garry Sir Garfield Sobers dead at 89

Garry Sobers, the graceful West Indian cricketer whose world-record test innings of 365 not out as a 21-year-old set him on the path to becoming arguably the sport’s greatest allrounder, has died.He was 89.West Indies’ cricket federation announced his death on Friday without providing a cause.“In the story of cricket, there are great players.

There are champions.Then, there are those rare individuals who redefine the very meaning of greatness,” said Kishore Shallow, president of Cricket West Indies.“Sir Garfield Sobers was the greatest cricketer the world has ever seen.

His mastery of batting, bowling and fielding was unparalleled, but his true significance reached far beyond the boundary ropes.”Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, with an extra finger on each hand, Sobers hit 26 test centuries and had a test average of 57.78 from batting that was both elegant and powerful.He was also a versatile bowler, dangerous with both wrist-spin and fast-medium deliveries.Sobers held a slew of records.

His unbeaten 365 against Pakistan in 1958 — remarkably his first test century — was the record score for 36 years, before countryman Brian Lara bettered it.He also was the first player to reach 8,000 runs in test cricket and to hit six sixes in one over in a first-class game, for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in English county cricket in 1968.All this achieved while maintaining a party lifestyle.“Well, it’s an exaggeration to say I was partying every night.

Just every other,” Sobers told The Guardian newspaper in 2002.“The night before a test match, I’d always be out and about all night.Sometimes I didn’t sleep at all before a big game.”Sobers played 93 tests for the West Indies from 1954-74, making his debut at age 17 and retiring at 38 with 8,032 runs, 235 wickets and 109 catches.

He captained his country a then-record 39 times.He was the best fielder of his generation, so alert at slip with his quick hands.Wisden rated him as one of the five b...