Cricket Discussion - Part 1

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Chrizzt said:
Garfield_Sobers_2539642k.jpg

U wot m8?
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Bill Cosby?
 
wharfie_1870 said:
January 1980 a guy I was working with was in the lobby of the Travelodge on South Terrace and saw four guys sitting together three of which he recognised as Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and Joel Garner. He went over and asked for their autographs and all four men obliged. Later he was very excitedly showing the piece of paper with the signatures of these three famous cricketers to an older workmate and commented that "there was this older guy with them and I let him sign it also as I didn't want to be rude". The other guy reading the four signatures asked, "Have you ever heard of Sir Garfield Sobers?"
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Gary Sobers was an absolute freak, and is still considered as the best all rounder in the history of the game.

He could bowl left arm quick, medium pace ( when the shine was off the ball ), left arm orthodox, and over the wrist chinamen, plus he could bat a bit as well.
His 254 at the mcg during the Rest of the World tour in 1971-2 had to be seen to be believed, he smashed the Aussie bowlers all over the park and was hitting his square cuts so ferociously that both feet would leave the ground as he made contact with the ball.

He scored over 1,000 runs and took more than 50 wickets in both of his Sheffield Shield seasons for S.A. and was the first triple century maker in test cricket with 365 not out as a 21 year old.

Funny story from one of his seasons with S.A. when he opened the bowling, and later in the game after bowling fast medium from one end was then asked by Les Favell to bowl left arm orthodox from the other end for consecutive ( 8 ball ) overs.
 
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wharfie_1870 said:
January 1980 a guy I was working with was in the lobby of the Travelodge on South Terrace and saw four guys sitting together three of which he recognised as Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and Joel Garner. He went over and asked for their autographs and all four men obliged. Later he was very excitedly showing the piece of paper with the signatures of these three famous cricketers to an older workmate and commented that "there was this older guy with them and I let him sign it also as I didn't want to be rude". The other guy reading the four signatures asked, "Have you ever heard of Sir Garfield Sobers?"
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Not surprised he didn't recognise him as Sir Garfield Sobers was from a generation where players faces weren't plastered in the media as often as they are nowadays or in the late 70s or 80s.

Very surprised he didn't know his name though.
 
*PAF said:
Not surprised he didn't recognise him as Sir Garfield Sobers was from a generation where players faces weren't plastered in the media as often as they are nowadays or in the late 70s or 80s.

Very surprised he didn't know his name though.
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He actually did know who Sobers was but didn't recognise him and didn't look too hard at his signature. With a lot of people's signatures if you know who it is you can see the name but otherwise it can be a bit hard to make out. The guy that picked up on it thought along the lines of who would be an older guy sitting with three current test players who would think a young Aussie might want his autograph. Probably not the team physio. :)
 
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1954 said:
Gary Sobers was an absolute freak, and is still considered as the best all rounder in the history of the game.

He could bowl left arm quick, medium pace ( when the shine was off the ball ), left arm orthodox, and over the wrist chinamen, plus he could bat a bit as well.
His 254 at the mcg during the Rest of the World tour in 1971-2 had to be seen to be believed, he smashed the Aussie bowlers all over the park and was hitting his square cuts so ferociously that both feet would leave the ground as he made contact with the ball.

He scored over 1,000 runs and took more than 50 wickets in both of his Sheffield Shield seasons for S.A. and was the first triple century maker in test cricket with 365 not out as a 21 year old.

Funny story from one of his seasons with S.A. when he opened the bowling, and later in the game after bowling fast medium from one end was then asked by Les Favell to bowl left arm orthodox from the other end for consecutive ( 8 ball ) overs.
Click to expand...


One Malcolm Nash of Glamorgan will never forget him either...



#Malcom
 
1954 said:
Gary Sobers was an absolute freak, and is still considered as the best all rounder in the history of the game.

was the first triple century maker in test cricket with 365 not out
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That's not correct.

Andy Sandham, Donald Bradman (2 of them), Wally Hammond, Len Hutton & Hanif Mohammad all made triple tons before Sobers. Sobers 365 not out became the highest test score beating Hutton's 364, holding the record until Lara knocked it off. Sobers was the first West Indian to score a triple ton.
 
Asgardian said:
That's not correct.

Andy Sandham, Donald Bradman (2 of them), Wally Hammond, Len Hutton & Hanif Mohammad all made triple tons before Sobers. Sobers 365 not out became the highest test score beating Hutton's 364, holding the record until Lara knocked it off. Sobers was the first West Indian to score a triple ton.
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From memory it was Sobers maiden century.
 
Asgardian said:
That's not correct.

Andy Sandham, Donald Bradman (2 of them), Wally Hammond, Len Hutton & Hanif Mohammad all made triple tons before Sobers. Sobers 365 not out became the highest test score beating Hutton's 364, holding the record until Lara knocked it off. Sobers was the first West Indian to score a triple ton.
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You are absolutely right, Sober's 365 not out surpassed Len Hutton's 364 by 1 run, and of course Don Bradman scored 2 triple centuries in test cricket.
Sobers was the first West Indian to score a triple century.

Andy Sandham was a bit harder to find, apparently he was Jack Hobbs opening partner in the early part of last century, and he was the first player to score a triple century in test cricket, he scored a total of 879 runs ( including his 325 ) in 14 test matches for the chooms.
He was at one stage ( the early 1980's ) the world's oldest living test cricketer.
 

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Cricket Australia is going to kill cricket in this country if they implement their "bid for matches" BS.

If Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane and now Hobart have to bid to get matches played there then by principal, doesn't that mean that the boxing day test and new years test are also up for bids?
 
LukeSA said:
Cricket Australia is going to kill cricket in this country if they implement their "bid for matches" BS.

If Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane and now Hobart have to bid to get matches played there then by principal, doesn't that mean that the boxing day test and new years test are also up for bids?
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So are they are going to allow the 4 smaller states to bid for the Boxing day and New Years test?
 
Ok the Sobers talk has been moved to this thread. Sobers was the greatest cricketer to play the game. Bradman was the best batsman by a long way but Sobers could do things in cricket Bradman couldnt do. He is the 2nd quickest ie least number of innings, to 6,000, only behind Bradman. Could open the bowling with fast medium, would slow down to bowl slow medium to get swing, could bowl left arm orthodox spin or left arm chinaman spin. Could field anywhere and took over 100 catches in test cricket. The only thing he was average at was capataincy only won 9 of 39 tests with 20 draws.

This Ian Chappell article on who was the best batsman after Bradman is insightful. He went with the best player he ever saw.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/626396.html
Sir Garfield Sobers is easily the best cricketer I've ever seen, and if you're not convinced, then accept the opinion of the next best allrounder, Keith Miller, who once declared: "Best batsman of all time - Bradman. Best cricketer of all time - Garry Sobers."

Sobers is also the best batsman I've ever seen. Just like he could do everything on the field - bowl three different styles, take brilliant catches and throw down the stumps regularly - he was also a great all-round batsman. I rate him just ahead of another fine left-hander, South Africa's Graeme Pollock, on the basis that Sobers hooked and Pollock didn't.

In a 1960-61 tour match, one of Australia's fastest bowlers bounced Sobers and followed up with a stream of invective. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Sobers responded casually: "You're not fast enough to bowl bouncers."

With smoke coming out of his ears the quickie delivered his fastest bouncer and Sobers hit it like a rocket in front of square leg. Having completed the swivel that follows a well-executed hook shot, Sobers looked the bowler in the eye and said: "See, I told you you're not quick enough to bowl that stuff."

....
I only once saw him bat in a cap for South Australia. It was the maroon West Indies cap, in a game against the touring South Africans. He went out and flayed the tourists in making a century. Years later in a Barbados bar I quizzed him: "Garry, why did you ask Les Favell [SA captain] if you could wear the West Indies cap that day against South Africa?"

He took a sip of his Banks beer. "Ian," he laughed, "at that stage they hadn't seen a West Indies cap [because of apartheid] and I thought it was time they had a good long look at one."
....
He's one of only three players, Jack Gregory and Keith Miller being the others (and Imran Khan a borderline fourth), who were genuine new-ball bowlers and batted high in the order. Jacques Kallis is close but he doesn't qualify as a genuine new-ball bowler.
.....
http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/626396.html
 
This very good article about that 254 at the MCG recalls some by play between Sobers and Lillee. There is a 9 minute video embedded.

http://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/garry-sobers-annihilates-australia-with-a-merciless-254-21568

Young Dennis Lillee had been ripping the vaunted World XI batting line up apart. Three weeks earlier he had demolished the side at Perth with eight for 29 in the first innings, taking nine wickets in a session. Whenever captain Garry Sobers had walked in, he had let fly a series of short pitched deliveries. The great man had gloved the third delivery he faced to ‘keeper Rod Marsh.

The series in 1971-72, arranged as a substitute for the cancelled South African tour that year, moved to Melbourne for the third ‘Test’.And there was no respite from the furious shelling. Graeme Pollock had flown in to add quality to the World XI batting. It did not matter to Lillee. He got Pollock, Sunil Gavaskar, Hylton Ackermann, Farokh Engineer and Sobers – for another duck – to take five for 48 as the visitors slumped to yet another low score of 184. The stars from around the globe were roundly criticised for a series of insipid batting performances.

Australia ended the first day on 58 for one.

That evening Sobers let his opposite number, Ian Chappell, know that he was taking the short pitched stuff seriously.
Sobers recalls: “I went in to bat in the first innings and Dennis came up with a short-pitched ball. I played a little bit early and Keith Stackpole picked me up at second slip. That evening I went to the dressing room where Ian was sitting and said to him, ‘You’ve got a boy here called Lillee. Every time I have gone in, all I have got from him is bouncers. I want you to tell him that I can bowl quick too, and I can bowl bouncers. So watch out for me when he comes in.’ “
...
The following day, Greg Chappell led the Australian reply with an attractive century, but Sobers, Tony Greig and Intikhab Alam bowled steadily to restrict the lead within manageable limits. Lillee came in with the score reading 285 for nine.

According to Sobers: “Tony Greig is like an elephant; he doesn’t forget anything. He came to me and said, ‘Why don’t you let him have it?’ I said, ‘Let him have what?’ He said, ‘Let him have the bouncer’. I ran up and I bowled this bouncer, and it whizzed past Dennis and he looked at me and he had turned completely pink. I knew by that time that I had got him.”

Lillee slogged the next ball straight up in the air and Bishan Bedi took a skier at mid-off. At the end of the day’s play, World XI stood at 42 for one in the second innings.

Sobers had gone in to the Australian dressing room yet again and Ian Chappell confided to him, “I’ll tell you something: when Dennis came in, before he reached the room, the bat hit the wall, and he said, ‘That little so-and-so, I will show him. I haven’t really bowled quick at him yet’.”

The legendary all-rounder replied, “Well, he’s got the ball, I’ve got the bat. I’ve never met the one who can scare me before, and I don’t think that I will.”

The next day, Sobers came in to bat at 146 for three. The lead less than fifty and the balance was still tilted well in favour of Australia. Lillee charged up and bowled short.

What followed was carnage. Sobers started with a blistering square-cut past point that sped to the fence at a rate almost approaching the speed of light. It set the tone for the day. When the ball was up, he drove – with timing and power beyond the capability of lesser men bound by the limitations of the mortal. When it was short and wide, he cut or drove off the backfoot with a ferocity that was primal in beauty and brutality. And when deliveries came rearing into his body, he rocked back to pull and hook, furious and fearless.

Lillee, Bob Massie, Terry Jenner and Kerrie O’Keefe combined into an intimidating attack. All of them were slaughtered with a blade that flashed in a manner both savage and sublime. The fast men were carted all around the wicket. The spinners were driven and lofted with uncanny quickness of eye and feet, and a thorough disdain for their length, line and reputation.

Everyone at the ground was aware of an exhibition beyond the ability and dreams of all but that one man on the planet, and there were plenty of great cricketers assembled for the match. The few hours at the crease saw dominance never witnessed before.

“I had three men square on the off side for the short delivery, and I remember him driving and cutting repeatedly between them. It was amazing stuff,” recalls Lillee.

With the second new ball, Lillee bowled a searing yorker on the off stump. Sobers square-drove it past point and O’Keefe hardly had time to react before it hit the cement and bounced back into the field.

“Any other batsman would have been bowled, but this bloke had the time to open the face of the bat and hit it past point,” recalled John Benaud, a minor character in the match.

There was another great stroke, a gem that shone brightly even in that dazzling display of fireworks. Massie bowled full and Sobers initially thought it was going to swing away from him. It turned out to be a late in-swinger. Sobers changed his shot halfway through the downswing, and instead of hitting it through the off-side hit it between Jenner at mid-wicket and Benaud at mid-on. The fielders saw the ball rocketing between them, stood rooted to the ground and shrugged.

By the end of the day, he was on 139 and World XI at a respectable 344 for seven. Ian Chappell trudged into the rival dressing room that evening. “I head over in his direction to congratulate him … just the two of us are in a quiet corner, and after I pour him a beer, he has a sip and then says, ‘Prue’s left me.’ Prue being his wife who lived in Melbourne in those days. I said: ‘Sobie, if that’s the bloody thing that’s annoying you so much, give me her phone number, and I’ll tell her to get bloody home straight away.’ You know, he just laughed. And it didn’t make any difference – he came out and belted us again.”

The carnage continues

The next day the merciless annihilation continued. Peter Pollock, who scored 54 and added 186 runs with his captain for the eighth wicket, went up to Sobers time and again, asking him not to give it away. There were runs on the board and Pollock was afraid that Sobers might get out to a loose stroke. However, the great left hander continued to belt boundary after boundary, with power and grace and sublime timing. When Lillee ran in with the third new ball, he was blasted out of the attack within a few overs.
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http://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/garry-sobers-annihilates-australia-with-a-merciless-254-21568
 
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Kerry O'Brien on 7.30 Report interviewed Sobers in 2002 when his book came out. Re the ending of that 254 Sobers said
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2002/s708263.htm
SIR GARRY SOBERS:
.......
That's when Sir Donald thought it was one of the best innings that he ever saw, particularly in Australia.

The beautiful thing about that innings, never mind all the other things, when I walked off, Dennis stood up there and he was one of the first to applaud and he said, "We've heard about you. I've got my little tail cut properly, but we appreciate it." Dennis and I became very good friends.

KERRY O'BRIEN: That's a true sportsman, isn't it?
SIR GARRY SOBERS: Oh, yes.
....
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2002/s708263.htm
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
So are they are going to allow the 4 smaller states to bid for the Boxing day and New Years test?
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No, there lies the hypocracy, if the other four states have to bid to retain their cricket matches then Melbourne and Sydney should have to as well, every match should be fair game but anyone knows all too well, nothing exists west of the great dividing ranges?

We have already seen it in action earlier this year when Adelaide lost the "traditional" Australia day one day'er to Sydney, we know get a small twenty/20 match to compensate next year. :rolleyes:
 
OR, maybe the Windies players didn't give a rats about the tour match & are probably planning a surprise. So if I were the Aussie players, I would NOT take the Windies lightly.
 
Greasyrhys said:
OR, maybe the Windies players didn't give a rats about the tour match & are probably planning a surprise. So if I were the Aussie players, I would NOT take the Windies lightly.
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Was my thoughts exactly, only time will tell if they tanked that match or not.

But it seems that they didn't even send out their top squad, it seems that most Windies players are only interested in BBL.
 
LukeSA said:
Was my thoughts exactly, only time will tell if they tanked that match or not.

But it seems that they didn't even send out their top squad, it seems that most Windies players are only interested in BBL.
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I wouldn't be taking Jerome Taylor or Kemar Roach lightly: that's a fairly solid new ball attack. But if we see off the new ball, it falls away fairly quickly. THEN there's the batting - if Samuels and Bravo both have a poor series, they're in real trouble.
 
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