Cricket’s greatest all-rounder, Barbados’ Sir Garfield Sobers, dies at 89

Sir Garfield Sobers, the Barbadian cricketer widely regarded as the greatest all-rounder the game has ever produced, has died at the age of eighty-nine, just eleven days short of his ninetieth birthday. Global Voices reports that Barbados' Prime Minister Mia Mottley called it a solemn hour for the nation and declared a National Day of Mourning, with flags flown at half-mast and a state funeral planned. Sobers played for the West Indies for two decades, from nineteen fifty-four to nineteen seventy-four, excelling as a batsman, bowler, and fielder, and famously became the first player to hit six sixes in a single over. He also held the record for the highest individual test score, three hundred sixty-five, for thirty-six years, until fellow West Indian Brian Lara surpassed it in nineteen ninety-four.

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