Sir Garfield Sobers, widely regarded as the greatest all-rounder cricket has ever produced, has died.
Sobers died at the age of 89 on Friday at his home in Barbados, the island that shaped him from a childhood of hardship into a man of unmistakable genius.
Born in 1936, the fifth of six children, he was raised largely by his mother after his father, a merchant seaman, was lost at sea during the Second World War.
He was just 16 when he made his first-class debut, and 17 when he played his first Test, batting at No. 9 against England. Nobody yet knew what he would become.
Success took time. But from 1958, Sobers turned unstoppable, compiling an unbeaten 365 against Pakistan, the highest score in Test history, a record that stood for 36 years.
What made him unmatched was his ability to do everything at once: an average of 57.78 with the bat, 235 Test wickets bowling pace, orthodox spin and wrist spin, sometimes all three in the same match. The West Indies so often played as though they had 12 men.
He captained the West Indies in 39 Tests, was knighted in 1975 and named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Century. The ICC’s premier annual honour in men’s cricket now carries his name.
Tributes are pouring in for a man who did not simply play the game for two decades; he redefined what was possible within it.