Chennai: Sir Garfield Sobers, one of cricket's greatest all-rounders, breathed his last at Bridgetown, Barbados on Friday. He was 89. Born in Bridgetown, Sobers was exactly 11 days shy of completing his 90th birthday.
Tributes poured in from across the globe as soon as the death of the former West Indies captain was confirmed by his son Daniel. Legendary West Indies pacer Michael Holding held it a very sad day. "It is obviously a very sad day. We all know that no one lives forever. We all know these things are inevitable. But at the same time, when you have these occurrences, it shifts you a bit," Holding told The New Indian Express.
"It's not someone that is a distant past friend. It's someone that you have known for many, many years and still have some sort of contact with over the years. So it's a bit tough at times."
Sobers played 93 Tests and scored 8,032 runs at 57.78 with 26 centuries and 30 half-centuries between March 1954 to April 1974. A left-handed batter, who also could also bowl left-arm pace, wrist spin and orthodox spin, Sobers claimed 235 wickets in Test cricket. Ironically, he played just one ODI and got out for a duck before taking a wicket. Besides, he was also a splendid fielder.
Holding didn't play with Sobers but had a lot of unforgettable memories of the legend. "No, I obviously didn't play with Sir Garry. He was before my time, but he was always around cricket. He was always around whenever we had tours. In many, many years gone by, there were always cocktail parties everywhere you went with cricket teams. And he was always in attendance at those cocktail parties in Barbados and some of the other islands because, of course, he travelled around the Caribbean whenever cricket was going on.
"And of course, he was on tours. He came to Australia. He was down there during Kerry Packer as well. So people of my generation, who did not play with him, still had a lot of close contact with him. I also spent a brief bit of time with him when there was the 20/20 tournament with Stanford in the Caribbean. I spent about 10 months with him on that. I didn't last very long. But even so we had contact. We spoke, and even if I didn't speak to him personally, I would see his friends or people who were close to him and we'd exchange views."
"I saw him in London whenever he came there, we saw him at the Barbados High Commission when there was a function there. So there's always intermittent contact and intermittent conversations, things going on. So, it's sad that he's gone. But he did a lot of great things. He did a lot of great things for the West Indies, for Barbados, for individuals that he came across. So he will be leaving us, but we'll have lots of good memories."
Sobers was also the first-ever batter to have hit six sixes in an over in a first-class match, playing for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in 1968. His maiden hundred where he slammed 365 against Pakistan at Kingston in February 1958, was also the highest-ever Test score by any batter at that time. It stood as the highest individual Test score for 36 years until another West Indian, Brian Lara, scored 375 against England.
Given the high standards he set, there were only a few cricketers who could match Sobers' feats in years to follow. Holding also said he never thought of doing things which his illustrious teammate did. "I can't say that he inspired me in any way. There's no way I could ever think of doing anything that he did, anything as good as he did it. So it was not a matter of inspiring me with my game. I went out there trying to play as best as I can for the West Indies. I didn't think about Garry Sobers when I was out there. I couldn't match anything he did. So that's a different story altogether."
It's been quite a few years since Holding had seen or met Sobers. In fact, the last time he saw Sobers was on a Zoom call. "No, I can't remember. I haven't actually seen him. I exchanged some messages with him probably about three years ago. The last time I saw him was actually on a Zoom call when we had a meeting with one of the Prime Ministers in the Caribbean about West Indies Cricket. But in person, I hadn't seen him for quite a few years."
Holding said he cannot pick a particular moment with Sobers, which will stay with him forever as they shared so many unforgettable memories. "I can't name one because we have had so many different times that I've enjoyed being in his company. I enjoyed having a conversation with him. There is no one moment that I can say, this moment will last forever. There are a lot of things that will last forever, a lot of memories."