CRICKET: Jon Swift
THERE is something vaguely intimidating about coming=20 face to face with a living legend, even one as openly=20 receptive to the advances of lesser mortals as cricket=20 great Sir Garfield Sobers.
At 59, the hair is greying and the lines demarcating=20 the edges of the mouth more deeply embedded than in his=20 heyday, but Sobers wears the mantle of greatness with=20 an almost casual off-the-shoulder elegance.
And, while his world Test record score of 365 not out=20 against Pakistan may have been eclipsed by Brian Lara’s=20 375 against England last season, he is still regarded=20 by as sanguine a critic as Sir Donald Bradman as the=20 greatest all-rounder of all time.
“I helped Brian a bit when he was getting started,” he=20 admits, “but he doesn’t really need me now.” The last=20 is stated to the accompaniment of a flashing smile=20 which instantly lifts the years.
Indeed, Sobers was one of the first to congratulate=20 Lara on the new record and, though he smiles a denial,=20 surely gave the burgeoning left-handed batting genius=20 some advice during the nine holes of golf they played=20 prior to the start of play on Lara’s momentous day. He=20 gives no hint that this is so.
Sobers is here in a twofold capacity: as part of the=20 tour party of Barbadian schoolboys representing a=20 combination of players from St Michael’s and Queens=20 Colleges on their 10-match tour of this country, and as=20 an ambassador at large for West Indian cricket in=20 general, and the game in Barbados in particular.
In the promotion of Barbados, he is joined by Donna=20 Symmonds, the deeply knowledgeable commentator who=20 visited this country with the 1993 West Indian=20 tourists. Symmonds now combines duties as a roving=20 special envoy for Barbados with her love and=20 understanding of the world’s most glorious game.
Both Sobers and Symmonds expressed pride at being=20 associated with the young tourists. They have every=20 right to be. The youngsters raised every cent of the=20 $86 000 it cost them to get here. They did it by=20 washing cars, running errands and holding fetes,=20 parties and other fund-raising activities.
Something which Sobers acknowleges as “a huge=20 achievement”. From a man who has achieved,this is=20 surely high praise and a lesson for this country’s=20 often pampered young players.