page_title: Garfield Sobers
section_title: Honours and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Garfield Sobers / Honours and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Fisheye shot of Sir Garfield Sobers, cricket legend and national hero, statue at Kensington Oval Cricket Ground in Barbados
context_page_description: Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, AO, OCC, also known as Gary or Garry Sobers, is a former cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, he is widely considered to be cricket's greatest ever all-rounder.
  Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sobers made his first-class debut for the Barbados cricket team at the age of 16 in 1953, and his Test debut for the West Indies the following year. Originally playing mainly as a bowler, he was soon promoted up the batting order. Against Pakistan in 1958, Sobers scored his maiden Test century, progressing to 365 not out and establishing a new record for the highest individual score in an innings. His record was not broken until Brian Lara scored 375 in 1994. Sobers was made captain of the West Indies in 1965, a role which he would hold until 1972. He would also captain a Rest of the World XI during their 1970 tour of England.
  Overall, Sobers played 93 Tests for the West Indies, scoring 8032 runs at an average of 57.78, and taking 235 wickets at an average of 34.03.
context_section_description: In the 1975 New Year Honours, Queen Elizabeth II created Sobers a Knight Bachelor for his services to cricket. The award was made in the British Diplomatic and Overseas section of the list, rather than on the nomination of the Government of Barbados, which had stopped putting forward recommendations for British honours. This caused the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office some unease, as shown by papers released by The National Archives in 2005. However, since Barbados had not yet introduced its own system of honours, the Prime Minister of Barbados was pleased that an honour would be forthcoming for Sobers.
  The award was originally intended to be made in the 1975 Queen's Birthday Honours, but since there was a royal visit to Barbados planned for February 1975, it was moved forward to the New Year list so that Sobers could be knighted by the Queen in person during the visit. The very short turnaround between the decision to make the award and its announcement meant that the Governor-General of Barbados was not informed of the award before the public announcement, which caused some hurt feelings between London and Bridgetown.
  He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1975 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while attending a reception at the Barbados High Commission in London to celebrate his recent knighthood.
  Sobers was made a National Hero of Barbados by the Cabinet of Barbados in 1998 and is thus accorded the honorary prefix "The Right Excellent". He is one of only ten people to have received this honour and the only recipient still living.
  Sobers coached internationally, having a one-time stint with Sri Lanka. In 2003 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, where he had played many first-class games for South Australia.
caption: Statue of Sobers outside Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados
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