Mid-Day Opinion: Back to the pavilion in style

A general view showing Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, with the Garfield Sobers Pavilion during the Australia vs Ireland 2007 ICC World Cup match. PIC/AFP

The world, and Barbados in particular, bid their final farewell to Sir Garfield Sobers on Wednesday. His family and the Barbadian government could not have chosen a more fitting venue than Kensington Oval for people to pay their last respects to arguably the finest all-round cricketer to emerge from the Caribbean, if not the world. It was here that Sobers took his first steps in first-class cricket. Unlike Sir Frank Worrell, who moved to Jamaica, and Sir Clyde Walcott, who also served British Guiana, Sobers remained a Barbados cricketer throughout his career, much like Sir Everton Weekes.

"As a young man, playing at the Kensington Oval was the highlight of my career," Sobers wrote in his 2002 autobiography.

Among Sobers's surviving Barbadian contemporaries are opening batsman Cammie Smith, fiery fast bowler Wes Hall, and Charlie Griffith, whose fearsome pace famously ended Nari Contractor's Test career during the Indians vs Barbados match on India's 1961-62 tour of the West Indies.

Smith, three years older than Sobers, was admired by the great all-rounder for his sense of humour - a trait many journalists also witnessed during Smith's ICC match referee assignments in India and abroad in the 1990s and 2000s. I had the pleasure of spending some time with the big, affable Smith in Galle, Sri Lanka, during the rain-affected Nidahas Trophy in 1998. On one occasion, he returned to the dressing room laughing after being dismissed. When a West Indies teammate wondered how he could smile after getting out, Smith replied that he had managed to hit a half-volley straight to the only fielder stationed in the covers.

Those who knew Sobers will tell you he possessed a similarly infectious sense of humour. It was not uncommon to hear his hearty chuckle during conversations. He showed that wit in the Bombay Test of the 1958-59 series when India pacer Ghulam Guard, a policeman by profession, caught and bowled him for 25. As Sobers walked back to the Brabourne Stadium pavilion, he said to Guard, "That's the biggest arrest you'll ever make."

Sobers greatly admired the pace bowling of Hall and Griffith. "By 1963 we had the outstanding pair of fast bowlers in world cricket: Wes Hall, fast, tireless and full of the joy of bowling, and Charlie Griffith, frighteningly hostile at times and crucified by those who claimed his action was sometimes outside the laws," wrote Sobers in 20 Years at the Top.

Unsurprisingly, Sobers defended Griffith against allegations of throwing. Even if reminded that Griffith's first Test captain, Frank Worrell, had privately admitted to some that Griffith did chuck, Sobers refused to believe it. Hall, born in 1937, was a year older than Sobers, while Griffith was born in 1938. Perhaps the greatest tribute Sobers paid them was his admission that he would rather face Clive Lloyd's legendary quartet of fast bowlers than Hall and Griffith at their peak.

Touchingly, both Hall and Griffith were among the distinguished former cricketers present at Kensington Oval on Wednesday.

The one fast bowler many pundits rated as the greatest of them all - Malcolm Marshall - was absent. Cancer claimed Marshall at the age of 41 in 1999. Like Sobers, his funeral was attended by
thousands and was held at the gymnasium named in Sobers's honour in 1992.

In his book Maco - The Malcolm Marshall Story, Hampshire journalist Pat Symes wrote: "Oddly the only major name missing was Sir Garfield Sobers, who was away in South Africa and unable to get back in time. If there was one name bigger than Marshall's in the annals of Barbados cricket it was surely Sobers, the greatest all-rounder of all time. But the true measure of Marshall the man was the number of mourners from overseas, particularly Hampshire, where he was equally revered."

Despite the sadness of Wednesday's occasion, one could not help wishing to have been a fly on the wall at Kensington Oval, witnessing so many of the Caribbean's greatest cricketers gathered to bid Sobers farewell on his final journey.

There have already been suggestions that the Oval should be renamed in Sobers's honour. I asked veteran Caribbean commentator Joseph "Reds" Perreira for his thoughts. "There is a lot of history attached to Kensington, but I'd welcome something like the Sobers-Kensington Oval, which would further enhance the legacy of the great man," Reds said.

Come to think of it, Kensington Oval already seemed to have Sobers's name etched into its identity, considering the memorable farewell the 96-year-old ground afforded Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers.

mid-day's Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.