GARRY SOBERS---IN MEMORIAM ... 1

GARRY SOBERS---IN MEMORIAM ... 1

The grand Barbadian is no more. Garry Sobers has passed on but remains etched in memory, locked in the minds of countless cricket lovers all over the world.

When Sobers hit six sixes of the bowling of Malcolm Nash at Swansea in 1968---a feat repeated only once more in the history of cricket of the longer version by our own Ravi Shastri for Bombay against Baroda in the 1985 Ranji Trophy---he made Nash pass into cricketing folklore while more gifted players passed into oblivion by the inevitable flow of time. That was County Cricket in those halcyon days when international professional cricketers earned their living thus, when product endorsements had not so commercialised this royal game to its precipitous decline in character and culture. 

Garry Sobers played for the West Indies in Test cricket, for Barbados in Shell Shield cricket, for Nottinghamshire in English County cricket and for South Australia in Sheffield Shield cricket. He was an all-round cricketer in its absolute literal sense barring the fact that he never kept wickets.

End of Part 1

Written by Sugata Bose