Sir Garfield Sobers – born 28 July 1936 in Bay Land, St Michael, Barbados, and who died on 17 July 2026 in the same parish, eleven days short of his 90th birthday – is remembered, almost universally, as the finest all-round cricketer the game has produced.
A Genius on Our Doorstep: Garry Sobers in Western Australia
He batted left-handed with power and elegance, bowled three distinct styles (left-arm fast-medium, orthodox left-arm spin and left-arm wrist-spin), and fielded, especially close to the bat, better than perhaps anyone before or since. Sir Donald Bradman called him a "five-in-one cricketer".
He never played for Western Australia, yet few overseas greats have a deeper on-field connection to this state.
Across eleven years, from October 1960 to December 1971, Sobers turned out at the WACA Ground (and once in Bunbury) twelve times, wearing four different sets of colours: West Indies, an International XI, a World XI and South Australia. It was a career long enough, and a talent in enough demand, that WA saw more of him than most touring players ever manage.
First sight of him, 1960
Sobers' first appearance in the west came on 25 October 1960, in a non-first-class match against a Western Australia Country XI at Bunbury's Recreation Reserve. He gave the locals both barrels: 56 and 105 with the bat, and 5-15 off just 10.3 overs with the ball.
Three days later he introduced himself to the WACA Ground against Western Australia, scoring 16 and 119 and taking 2-24 and 0-93 while sharing the stage with Australian great Bob Simpson, who made 87 and 221 for the home side.
A week after that, still with the West Indies touring party, he played an Australia XI at the same iconic venue, making 20 and 72 and taking 2 for 84.
The South Australian years
From 1961 to 1964, Sobers returned to the WACA Ground on three occasions, this time as an overseas recruit for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield, testing himself against WA season after season.
In January 1962 he made a modest 4 and 29, with 1-37 and 1-22. A year later, in the New Year match of 1962/63, he reached 250 first-class wickets with 1-25 and 6-48 to go with an innings of 46.
Then, in January 1964, came the innings that towers over this whole record: 195, alongside 3-54 and 4-136, in a match during which he passed 100 wickets in the Sheffield Shield and 11,500 first-class runs for his career.
Two more colours, and a final flourish
Sobers returned to the WACA Ground in October 1968, first for a limited overs match representing an International XI (22 and 2-35), then days later for West Indies against WA: 132 and 16 not out, with 0- 28 and 4-55.
His last visit came in December 1971, as part of the World XI's tour, and it produced arguably the most talked-about few days of his time in the west. Against WA he made 34 and 0, with 1-45. Then, playing for the World XI against Australia itself, he was dismissed for a golden duck (caught Marsh, bowled Lillee) as part of a famous spell in which Dennis Lillee took 8- 29 from 7.1 overs. The five-day match finished in three, prompting an impromptu 25-over exhibition (Sobers made 2, with 0-19), before a 40-over List A fixture two days later in which he made an unbeaten 44, his List A debut on Australian soil.
A lasting connection
Add it up and Sobers played 12 matches in Western Australia across four different teams over eleven years, scoring several hundred runs, taking wickets with three different bowling styles, and reaching career milestones on WA soil for both runs and wickets. He may never have worn the state's colours, but WA Cricket saw more of Garry Sobers, at more stages of his brilliance, than it saw of many players who did.
Vale, Sir Garfield Sobers.