Remembering The Legend of Legends on His 90th Birth Anniversary

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam

28 July 2026

Had the peerless Sir Garfield Sobers been alive, he'd have turned 90 on July 28. He breathed his last on July 17. Though so much has been written about the incredible cricketing exploits of the legendary cricketer, there is still a lot to be highlighted to fathom the phenomenon known as Sir Garry.

The world knows that Sir Garry was the first cricketer in the history of the game to hit six consecutive sixes in an over but very few people know that Sobers decided to teach  Malcolm Nash a lesson for lifetime a day prior to the match. On the eve of the county match between Nottinghamshire and Glamorgan, players of both the teams were having beer in a nearby club. Nash drank too much and deliberately piqued Garry by saying that he'd make it difficult for him to hit even boundaries off his bowling.

'Mate, let's see, what happens tomorrow,' said the great West Indian. And the rest, they say, is part of cricketing folklore. Nash was being tipped to play Test cricket for England but for the massacre on that day which gave him such a psychological blow that he could never get over that in his whole life.

It's also ironic that Sobers was never very fond of hitting sixes and believed that hitting sixes was no criterion for great batsmanship. He'd always give the examples of Sir Don Bradman and Sir Everton Weeks (one of the famed three Ws). Both the greats avoided hitting sixes in their exceptionally great careers. Sobers hit sixes when any bowler challenged him. It was the misfortune of Nash on that day.

Watching Sobers bat, bowl and field was a sight to behold as the man was a consummate genius. But at the same time, his greatness as a human being also endeared him to the opponents and the cricket lovers all over the world. Unassuming to a fault, Sobers never evinced any airs and was devoid of attitude. He indeed had a winning attitude but he never looked down upon his opponents. Connoisseurs still remember the ever-smiling Sobers applauding the batsmen who played him well and hit boundaries off his bowling. He'd clap and encourage the batsmen of other teams who batted well. Sunil Gavaskar will vouch for Sobers' generosity when the latter dropped him twice in his knock of 220 at Port of Spain. 'Sunny later asked Sir Garry, 'Methinks, you dropped me deliberately.' 'Man, you mesmerized me with your batting,' was Sobers' candid reply.

The West Indies toured India in 1966-67 under Garfield Sobers. Garry Sobers gave a reprieve to Budhi Kunderan during the Third Test match between India and the West Indies at the Brabourne Stadium in Bombay in December 1966 .  He picked up a sharp catch in the leg trap of Budhi Kunderan. The appeal was instantly upheld but Sobers asked the umpire to reverse his decision indicating the catch had been taken on the half volley. That reprieve allowed Kundaren to score a blistering 79.

It was a demonstration that cricket was not just about winning and losing. Why and how you played the game was equally, if not more, significant.

Ayaz Memon aptly said, " In Sir Garfield Sobers’ passing, cricket has lost its greatest player ever. For many decades, this assessment would come prefixed with ‘arguably’. This is now superfluous. His multifaceted aspects of his cricketing persona and his level of excellence in all attributes – batting, bowling, fielding, with the statistics that come with them – mark him out as peerless."

Through the turbulent and turmoil-ridden decades 1960s and 1970s in post-World War 2, haunted by the tyranny of racial discrimination and other inequalities, Sobers, like Muhammad Ali and Pele in other disciplines, though their exploits challenged the status quo, succouring the desire and thrust for a new world order. C L R James called him the 'Ultimate Symbol of Black Pride'.

Agreed, Sobers was a Nature's Freak, his stupendous abilities give some hope to the lesser mortals that we too can become highly skilled if we use our strengths to the optimum.

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URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/remembering-legends-90th-birth-anniversary/d/140972

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