West Indies cricketing great Sir Garry Sobers has died

West Indies cricketing legend, Sir Garfield "Garry" Sobers, has died at the age of 89.

The Barbadian cricketer, who was regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders in the game, passed away on Friday, Cricket West Indies announced.

Sobers made his first-class debut for Barbados at the age of 16 in 1953, then quickly played his first match for the West Indies the following year.

He scored his first Test century - a then world-record 365 not out - against Pakistan in 1958. The individual score would stand unopposed until another Windies star, Brian Lara, raised the stakes again in the 1990s and 2000s, but it still stands sixth on the all-time list.

Sir Garry went on to play for the Windies for 20 years, making both his first and last Test appearances in 1954 and 1974 respectively against England.

For Nottinghamshire 10 years after his Test debut he hit six sixes against Glamorgan in the County Championship in Swansea, becoming the first player to do so in an over.

A statement on Windies Cricket's official X account read: "A great innings has come to an end. In our hearts, now and forever, Sir Garfield Sobers."

Nottinghamshire said in a statement on their official X account: "Cricket's greatest-ever all-rounder, and an iconic figure in Nottinghamshire history. We are extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Garfield Sobers."

He was adored in Barbados, where it was a daily occurrence for taxi drivers in Bridgetown to hail him, not the other way round.

Kishore Shallow, president of Cricket West Indies, described Sobers as "a son of Barbados whose extraordinary journey became part of the story of our region and whose brilliance carried the name of the West Indies with distinction across the world".

She added: "In the story of cricket, there are great players. There are champions. Then, there are those rare individuals who redefine the very meaning of greatness.

"Sir Garfield Sobers was the greatest cricketer the world has ever seen. His mastery of batting, bowling and fielding was unparalleled, but his true significance reached far beyond the boundary ropes."

Considered by many to be modern cricket's finest all-rounder, Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, who died just 11 days short of his 90th birthday, was an elegant batsman, a versatile bowler, a brilliant fielder and a respected captain.

Sobers, born in 1936 in St Michael, Bridgetown, was the fifth of six children and his father died in action during the Second World War in 1942, when his son was just five-years-old.

He was born with an extra finger on each hand at birth. They were soon removed but it did not impact his playing career.

Following his first-class debut, he played one more first-class match before he was picked to face England in the final Test in Jamaica in March 1954.

He took four first-innings wickets as a replacement for Alf Valentine in defeat.

A year later he proved his talent as a batsman after he dispatched Australian great Keith Miller for a string of early boundaries.

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In all, he made 93 Test appearances and scored 8,032 runs, scoring 26 hundreds in a 20-year Test career in which he had an average of 57.78 along with 235 wickets at 34.03.

Before being knighted in 1975, or named National Hero of Barbados in 1998, he had captained his country for seven years from 1965.

England Cricket posted on X: "One of the greatest to ever play the game. Forever in our hearts, Sir Garfield Sobers."

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