Sir Garfield Sobers dies, aged 89

Jul 17, 2026 News, Sports

Sir Garfield Sobers – 1936-2026 • Getty Images

(Cricinfo) Sir Garry Sobers, the legendary West Indies all-rounder, has died at his home in Barbados. He was 89 years old.

Widely regarded by many as the greatest all-rounder and most gifted cricketer to have played the game, Sobers excelled as Test batter, could bowl left-arm pace as well as orthodox and wrist spin, and he was an exceptional fielder and close-in catcher.

Sir Garfield Sobers

He played 93 Test matches for West Indies between 1954 and 1974, scoring 8032 runs at an average of 57.78 and took 235 wickets at an average of 34.03. The ICC’s premier annual award in men’s cricket – the Sir Garfield Sobers Award – is named in his honour and recognises the most outstanding overall performer in men’s international cricket across all formats.

“A great innings has come to an end. In our hearts, now and forever, Sir Garfield Sobers,” Cricket West Indies said in a post on X.

Sobers made his first-class cricket debut in 1952-53 at the age of 16, and his Test debut a year later, against England in Jamaica, where he scored 14 and 26 from No.9 and took 4 for 75 in England’s first innings.

He played his initial Tests as a bowler, but at the age of 23 he scored his maiden Test hundred and also broke Len Hutton’s world record for the highest individual Test score by making 365 against Pakistan at Sabina Park in 1958. It was a record that stood until 1994, when it was broken by Brian Lara, an achievement Sobers was on hand to witness and celebrate.

A decade after that record-breaking innings, Sobers became the first cricketer to hit six sixes in an over in first-class cricket – off Glamorgan’s Malcolm Nash – while playing for Nottinghamshire.

His first-class career comprised 383 matches for West Indies, Barbados, Nottinghamshire and South Australia and he amassed 28,314 runs at an average of 54.87 and took 1043 wickets at an average of 27.74.

While Sobers played 95 List A games, his international career had wound down by the advent of ODIs and he played only one international in that format – against England at Headingley in 1973. He was knighted for his services to cricket in 1975.

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