Windies knights Constantine and Sobers helped Sri Lanka cricket

By A.C. de Silva

CRICKET: Sri Lanka has had the good fortune of having had two outstanding West Indian cricketers of the past to guide the destiny of Sri Lanka's cricket. First it was Test star, diplomat and politician Sir Learie Constantine and then it was Sir Garfield Sobers.

Learie Constantine born on September 21 in 1901 in Trinidad was one of the greatest allround players the game has ever known and he was in the West Indian team in 1928 and became the first West Indian to complete 1,000 runs and take 100 wickets. He played 18 Tests for the Windies and his dynamic batting, devastating bowling and athletic fielding enabled him to become a legend.

He was in Sri Lanka in 1952 and coached many schools and also Ceylonese cricketers. Though he is not amongst the living, the lessons that he taught the local school cricketers in those early days were taken note of and the youngsters made good the valuable advice given to them.

Then there was the indefatigable Sir Garfield Sobers who is still among the living. He was born on July 28 in 1936 and during his playing days was a top-class allrounder- batsman, bowler and fielder.

Sobers made his Test debut for the West Indies against England in the Test at Kingston between March 30 and April 3 in 1954 and his last Test too was against England at Port of Spain between March 30 and April 5 in 1994. He was knighted for his services to cricket in 1975. Sobers also figures in Wisden as one of the five cricketers of the century in 2000.

Sobers too was very much involved with cricket in Sri Lanka and his services to cricket in the country was obtained by his erstwhile friend the late Gamini Dissanayake - then President of the Board of Control for Cricket who was instrumental in Sri Lanka gaining full Test Status.

Enormous talent

At a dinner meeting that Sobers had with late President J.R. Jayewardene and Gamini Dissanayake, Sobers said that Sri Lanka has enormous cricket talent and there doesn't seem any barriers to its future development.

"Sri Lankan cricketers seem to combine skills of the Caribbean spirit of cricket coming from his own West Indies and they seemed to be bound by a very traditional approach to the game."

Sobers further said that he was of the view that rigorous and orthodox cricket coaching at school level brought out the best out from the schoolboys.

When President Jayewardene inquired whether Garfield Sobers could not help the Sri Lankan boys to develop such a fine eye that he has in making his cricketing strokes, Sobers didn't waste time and he promptly said: The "boys" were really good, but they still had a long way to go. As a team, Sidath Wettimuny, Duleep Mendis, Roy Dias, Arjuna Ranatunga, Ranjan Madugalle, Rumesh Ratnayake, Ravi Ratnayake and Aravinda de Silva under any circumstance, were world class cricketers.

"The interim period between school cricket or club cricket and International Test cricket can turn out to be somewhat painful, but in Gamini Dissanayake, Sri Lanka had a man who knows what he is doing and Sri Lanka's cricket administration was on the correct path." Sobers said.

The great cricketer that he was, Sobers, said that cricket administrations all over the world are notorious for their divisions. Sri Lanka, however, had in Gamini Dissanayake an administrator par excellence who was holding the scales between the troublesome parties and somehow managed to make all of them work together.

Great allrounder

Just mention the name Garfield Sobers and every cricket fan, big or small will be able to pop the answer that he was one of cricket's greatest allrounders who captained the West Indies. Sobers was quite rightly given the honour that he so richly deserved when he was made the chief guest at the World Cup cricket tournament held on the West Indies this year.

His achievements are many and Sri Lanka too has had the good fortune of learning many valuable points from this great West Indian cricketer Sobers, was at one time coach of the Sri Lankan team during the time that Duleep Mendis was captain of Sri Lanka.

Sobers played in 93 Tests with 160 innings. He was not out on 21 occasions and he aggregated 8,032 runs with 365 not out against Pakistan at Kingston in the 1957-58 series as his highest and also had 26 centuries for an eye-catching average of 57.78. Besides the centuries, he had 30 fifties. He took 235 wickets from 21,599 balls giving away 7,999 runs. He held 109 catches.

His 26 centuries came against - versus Pakistan three - that marvellous 365 not out in Kingston in 1957-58 then 125 and 109 not out at Georgetown during the same tour.

The matches

Versus India - 8: 142 not out at Bombay in 1958-59, 198 at Kanpur in 1961-62, 106 not out at Calcutta 1958-59, 153 at Kingston in 1961-62, 104 at Kingston in 1961-62, 108 not out at Georgetown in 1970-71, 178 not out in Bridgetown in 1970-71, 132 at Trinidad in 1970-71.

Vs England - 10: 226 at Bridgetown in 1959-60, 147 at Kingston in 1959-60, 145 at Georgetown in 1959-60, 102 at Leeds in 1963, 161 at Old Trafford in 1966, 163 not out at Lord's in 1966, 174 at Headlingley in 1966, 113 not out at Kingston in 1967-68, 152 at Bridgetown in 1967-68, 150 not out at Lord's in 1973.

Vs Australia - 4: 132 at Brisbane in 1960-61, 168 at Sydney in 1960-61, 110 in Adelaide in 1968-69, 113 at Sydney in 1968-69.

Vs New Zealand - 1: 142 at Bridgetown in 1971-72.

Sri Lanka has a special place for Sobers as he was our coach at a certain time when late Mr. Gamini Dissanayake was the President of the Cricket Board.

Early picking

The greatness of Sobers was spotted very early by Lord Learie Constantine - one of the most dynamic players of cricket history. Constantine came to Australia as a member of a Parliamentary delegation and met Sir Donald Bradman (now deceased) in 1930-31. Constantine's first words were: "Don't miss this boy. He is marvellous and the hardest hitter of a ball I have ever seen."

As Constantine himself was a ferocious hitter himself, "I followed his advice and watched out for the advent of Sobers on Australian soil." Don Bradman had said on that occasion.

The first thing about Sobers was his beautiful athletic build. Around six feet tall he possessed a trim, lithe body and moved with a deceptive bee-line grace which is so often characteristic of West Indians. Circumstances usually dictated that he should field close to the wicket but he was superb in every position.

As a bowler he handled the new ball with excellent control of swing and later in a match could bowl orthodox first-finger spin, or googlies off the third finger. This versatility made him a captain's dream even though it was the main reason why his total career wickets were a little more costly than those of some of his contemporaries. It is extraordinarily difficult to bowl every variety with pinpoint accuracy.

But in batting, Sobers shone the brightest.

Tribute by 'Don'

Describing Sobers, two shots have been described by Don Bradman as the best that he had seen.

One was at the Adelaide Oval. The bowler was Alan Davidson - a left-hander of considerable pace, Alan bowled a bouncer at Sobers. The ball rose roughly shoulder high and, off his back foot with a horizontal blade, Sobers hit in over mid-on for 6, the ball landing halfway up the hill just under the scoreboard. It was simply unbelievable power.

The second was on the MCG. The proposed 1971-72 tour of Australia by South Africa had been cancelled and was replaced by a World XI of which Sobers was made captain.

In the third of the International, Australia versus a World XI, after the latter was already one down in the series and 101 behind on the first innings, Sobers, after having made a 'duck' in his first innings, strode to the wicket to confront Lillee and his supporters, facing apparent defeat.

From the first ball, Sobers commenced an unrelenting attack on the bowling. Lilee delivered one of his thunderbolts but Sobers unleashed the Most wonderful straight drives which hit the sightscreen almost before the bowler's forward momentum had finished. "I rose from my chair to join in the spontaneous applause." Bradman says.

On that occasion, Sobers finished with 254, an innings so marvellous that it was later to be the subject of a special film for which Bradman has said that he was proud to do the commentary.

It was certainly the best innings that "I have ever seen on Australian soil and I believe the best-ever played in Australia" - the Don has gone on record as saying.

Without any doubt, Sobers played fast bowling better than any batsman from any country. Whether it was in defence, attack or evasion, his positioning was always perfect and quite relaxed - a tribute to eyesight, co-ordination and judgement.

Gary Sobers made his Test debut at Jamaica against England - the 5th Test of 1953-54 on March 30th 1954. The West Indies skipper then was Stollmeyer.

Sobers made 14 not out and 26 and batted at No. 9. He bagged 4 wickets (Trevor Bailey - his first Test wicket, John Wardle, Tony Lock and Jim Laker). It was a creditable performance for Sobers who was just 17 years of age. Later on, he made a name for himself in the world of cricket.

Then coming on to bigger things, Sobers' 2000th run came in his 23rd Test in the 39th innings when he was dismissed for 29 at Madras in 1958-59.

The West Indian's 200th wicket was G. R. Vishwanath when Sobers had him caught by Lewis for 25 in the first innings at Barbados in 1970-71 in his 80th Test.

Sobers' 50th Test catch was that of D. S. Close off paceman Griffith at Edgbaston in 1963 in his 45th Test.

Many records

There are many records that stands to his name. He hit 6 sixes in an over a world record on August 31st 1968 when he was playing for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan at Swansea. Malcolm was the unfortunate bowler on that occasion.

Nash - normally a left-arm new ball bowler, he was bowling spin at the time. Nash's first two balls disappeared into the stands of the Cricketer's Inn. The third went into the Pavilion enclosure and the fourth was sent over the scoreboard. The fifth was driven straight and although Roger Davis caught it, he fell over the boundary in the process, causing another six to be signalled.

Sobers fiercely pulled the sixth ball out of the ground and into St. Helen's Avenue. The ball itself was not found until the following day.

Ravi Shastri of India also had the good fortune of hitting six sixes. Playing for Bombay against Baroda in Bombay in 1984-85 the bowler to suffer was Tilak Raj. The cricket bat used to hit a world record six sixes in a single over has fetched a record price at an auction.

Sir Garfield Sobers' famous short-handled Slazenger bat fetched dollars 146,875 from a mystery phone bidder in Melbourne in October 2000. The West Indies left-hander used the bat during the 1968 county cricket match when playing for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan.

Another Sobers' bat, which hit a then World record Test score of 365 not out against Pakistan in 1958, was snapped up for dollars 129,250. This was declared as a record sale for a cricket bat.

Victory as captain

When the Australian cricketers came to the West Indies in March 1965, Sobers captained the Windies and the first test at Sabina Park was memorable as the West Indies went on to win the match by 179 runs. The Aussie captain was Bobby Simpson.

The West Indies batted first and made 239 in the first innings with Conrad Hunte making 41 and Tony White 57.

Australia made 217 and the bowlers who did the damage were Wesley Hall 5 for 29 and Charlie Griffith 2 for 59.

In the second innings the West Indies, had a 22 runs lead and they made 373 in their second innings with Conrad Hunte making 81, Basil Butcher 71 and Joe Solomon 76 and Sobers 27.

Australia were all out for 216 runs in the second innings and that gave the West Indies Victory by 179 runs.

The West Indies team had Sir Frank Worrell as team manager Garry Sobers captain and included Conrad Hunte, Rohan Kanhai, Joe Solomon, Seymore Nurse, Basil Butcher, Wesley Hall, Charlie Griffith, Lance Gibbs, Jackie Handricks and Tony White. When Sober's left the Test scene, he had but one sorrowful incident in his career - that is the death of one of his pals - Collie Smith, who was one of the outstanding West Indian cricket personalities. Collie Smith played in 26 tests, made 1,331 runs (Avg. 31.64) and took 48 wickets for 1,625 runs (Avg. 33.86). Smith made 44 and 104 in his first test against Australia.

Smith (at 27) had not yet reached his prime when in September 1959, he died of injuries in a car accident, a car driven by his great friend Gary Sobers.