I have seen Sobers play only on television that too after he retired. However, with true respect to him and the Genius that he was, I do not rate him as the greatest all rounder. I give this title to Kallis who has been just awesome player of our era. This South African holds awesome record in all formats of the game such as tests, one-dayers and even Twenty20. He is the only person who has scored more than 10000 runs and taken 250 plus wickets both in tests and one-dayers along with 100 plus catches in both formats. He has brushed shoulders and played against the greatest bowlers such as Kumble, McGrath, Murali, Wasim, Waqar, Shane Warne, Ambrose, Walsh etc. Do we need a better all rounder than him and should we look beyond him for someone greatest. If Kallis is excluded, I believe that the greatest all rounder is yet to come. Sobers truly was genius. But he hardly played any onedayers leave alone Twenty20. So his adaptibility to these formats is still under question. I don't doubt either his talent or his statistics. But I have serious doubts regarding his adaptibility and whether he would coped so well like Kallis if at all he had played in the modern era. Add to this that he was from West Indies which means he had never to face some of the finest and fierce bowlers of his era since most of them were from West Indies itself. There was one Lilley, a Thompsun etc. But all in all all the oppositions he played against never had bowlers who could really rattle.
Re: Sobers Vs Kallis
by usha sundaram on Aug 06, 2010 12:15 AM
While it is true Sobers had not played one day format, his brilliant 256 against Australia in less than a day, provides immense insight in to what he would have done in one day cricket. It is not proper to compare players in different era and hence I cannot agree with the oomments said regarding Kallis.
Shame Gary Sobers - you decided to become a "knight" of the same queen that enslaved your African brothers and sisters for amny many years and subjected you all to untold sufferings and humiliation.
You join the ranks of an idiot called Michael Jackson who conquered the world in music yet wanted to be a knight of the queen to gain the title Sir and thereby stand by the deeds of the same queen. Grow up you African lot.
Re: Shame Gary Sobers
by guru on Jul 31, 2010 04:21 PM
For that matter Dilip Kumar should return the Nishan E Pakistan. But he loves to have it to remember his origin.
Re: Re: Shame Gary Sobers
by rajeev on Jul 31, 2010 04:27 PM
Does this honour from Pakistan let India down? No! How about the queen's knighthood? Yes, it does validate and justify slavery by praising the queen therby praising all her actions!
Also, India is free to give such an honour to any lakistani, like we did to Frontier Ghandhi. Can the Africans award the title sir to a brit??
With all the due respect to Gary Sobers,why the heck "Sir" Gary Sobers.
This is not an Indian laurel/address.Wake up India. We dont have to use thsi term. Its demeaning. Mr./Ms./Mrs./Dr etc. are internationally accepted titles. Not "Sir". Would the brits call Amitabh Bacchan "Sir" Amitabh Bacchan if we bestow him with an honour and decide to call him "Sir"? Why not??
Text size: A | A Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh have all been rested for the tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand that kicks off on August 10.
Abhimany Mithun retains his place in the side at the expense of Ashok Dinda, who was in the Asia Cup squad, but there is no place for Amit Mishra, who did not play the first two Tests in Sri Lanka.
Dinda will now head to Australia, alongwith with Manish Pandey, to replace R Ashwin and Sourav Tiwary in the Indian team participating in the Emerging Players tournament.
What a stupid headline is this? "Cricket's greatest genius".. Sobers should be a greatest allrounder not greatest genius. He is no where compare to Don Bradman, Our own sachin.
Here is my list of greatest according to their roles :
Allrounder : 1. Garry Sobers 2. Jacquei Kalis 3. Imran Khan/Kapil Dev ( Both are excellent capitains)
Batsmen : 1. Don Bradman ( though he plays only test matches) 2. Sachin ( Arguebly all time greatest in all the format of the game.) 3. Viven Richards ( the destroyer)
Bowlers : 1. Wasim Akram 2. Malcom Marshall 3. Shane Warne/Muralidharan ( very difficult to leave anyone of them)
Wicket keepers : 1. Adam gilchrists 2. Mahendra Singh Dhoni 3. Kumara Sangarakara All three wkt keepers can be considered as three greatest all rounders as well.
Re: What a stupid headline...
by Gopal Krishnan on Jul 31, 2010 04:03 PM
How can you ignore Andy Flower of Zimbabwe for Wicket Keeping (in place of Dhoni) and Md. Azharuddin Fielder(in place of Collingwood)
He is indeed the greatest all rounder to have ever graced the game of cricket.His brutal treatment of Dennis Lillie on the bouncy wickets in Australia in the RoW vs Australia series is still talked about.
Re: Why not kalis?
by joshi nikhil on Jul 31, 2010 03:38 PM
yes you are right people and media talks only about sachin and ponting but for me kalis is batter than all i think kalis took aroung 150 catches
Re: Re: Why not kalis?
by Pravesh Khanna on Jul 31, 2010 03:59 PM
Guys, Just see the pics in this article - NO HELMET. I still think Sachin is probably the "best" (there can't be anyone with "Greatest" title) batsman. But you can't compare players from different era.
During old times, they had virtually NO protection against the Super quick bowlers (& there was NO limits on number of bouncers in an over). But on the same note, the fielding standards weren't that high. There was no technology which allowed them to study thier opposition etc.
Re: Why not kalis?
by Kevin DSouza on Jul 31, 2010 03:53 PM
sobers was better bcoz he was 1 of the best batsman of his generation and he was a very good bowler. he used to bowl medium pace, off spin, leg spin , chinaman all of them. n he was really good at all of them.
most of the west indians seem to have a an eye on our bolly female stars..sobers and anju, viv and neena, oh, and also, glenn turner had married an indian..and the latest, sania and shoaib..its time we do the same on others..let non performers like harbhajan and yuvi marry a west indian lady and then their lives will be spoilt for ever..
Re: sobers and anju mahendroo??
by MOHAN PB on Jul 31, 2010 02:59 PM
Dear Veerapuram Dharan,
Bishen Singh bedi has done that already. He married an Australian Jill whom he met on the 1967-68 Indian tour of Australia and again on the 1971-72 Rest of the World tour of Australia. They had two kids, Gavasinder and jasvinder.
