Lilee...in full flight.
Sobers...Never intimidated by pace. This is the fourth of five extracts from the autobiography of legendary West Indian all-rounder Sir Garfield Sobers. The final instalment will be in next Sunday's Gleaner.
I HAD THE privilege of captaining the Rest of the World for two series, one in England in 1970 and the other in Australia in 1971-72, both arranged in place of cancelled tours by the banned South African side. The irony is that I did not want to go on either of them.
The first time, I was more than a little uncertain because I did not think it was right to let down my country side Nottinghamshire for more than half of the summer. Ultimately, I was left with little choice because the Test and Country Cricket Board warned that if I did not accept their invitation, I would not be allowed to play for my country anyway. Notts were to have a share of the takings from the five-Test series, so that made the decision a little easier.
Also, when I specifically asked whether the series would be granted full Test status and if the averages would count, I was assured that they would. It was not until the end of the series that I was casually informed that the averages would not count as the series was not country versus country. That was annoying because I scored 588 runs at an average of 73 plus 21 wickets at 21 each.
I should have learned my lesson but it happened again in Australia. I was keen to return to play a little state cricket with South Australia, renew a few friendships and rest my weary body. It was only because Sir Donald Bradman persuaded me that I eventually accepted.
The first series in England came about because of the Basil d'Oliveira affair. England picked a touring side for South Africa that included the South African born Worcestershire all-rounder d'Oliveira. The South African government refused to grant him a visa because he had mixed blood and was categorised as coloured by the apartheid regime. The British government immediately ordered the MCC to cancel the tour and South Africa were subsequently excluded from the game at international level.
To fill the void, the Rest of the World team was conceived and what a strong side it was - at least on paper. From the West Indies, wicketkeeper Deryck Murray, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd and Lance Gibbs, joined me. Pakistan provided Intikhab Alam and Mushtaq Mohammad. From India there was Faroukh Engineer, from Australia Graham McKenzie plus South Africans Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock, Mike Procter and Eddie Barlow. That must have been the strongest cricket side ever to be brought together and yet we did not sparkle in beating a fairly moderate England side 4-1. Why is beyond me.
It was nothing to do with the financial arrangements. Thanks to sponsors Guinness, who provided an overall pot of 13,000 pounds, there was good money to be won with 2,000 pounds per team for each victory and 3,000 pounds for the overall winning team. We won 11,000 pounds - paltry now but excellent reward in those days. The games were extremely competitive.
I wondered whether the presence of so many top players led to some complacency. If that was the case, it was not at all professional. Certainly the squad mixed and blended well together, and that side of things compared favourably with tours I had been on with the West Indies. Every player took it seriously; a number were using the series to regain or cement their places in their countries' Test teams.
THE SECOND REST OF THE BEST
Sir Donald Bradman could be very persuasive when he wanted anything from me. I was pleased to accept the invitation to play for South Australia but when he asked me to captain the Rest of the World side again, I was not sure about it. I didn't really feel up to it at that stage of my career.
I even wrote back and decline but the Don would not let go. He said he wanted me to captain the side so that he could have a look at Dennis Lillee and a few others before they went to England. The Don asked me to give up my season with South Australia to take on another five-Test series, and as it was him, I agreed.
We didn't have a particularly strong team this time around although it included Tony Greig, Peter Pollock, Sunil Gavaskar, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Bishen Bedi, Faroukh Engineer, Zaheer Abbas, Bob Tunis, from New Zealand and Richard Hutton, Hylton Ackerman from Northants and a fellow named Massoo from India who have never played Test cricket. We tried for Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock and Mike Procter so that we would have a similar team to the one we had in England, but with no luck. This one was not quite at the same level.
The first game was in Brisbane and I was talking to Ray Lindwall whom I hadn't seen for some time. We were standing outside a little coffee shop watching Dennis Lillee go back 20 yards or so and I said to Ray, 'Why is he running from so far? Lindwall game me a look that said 'You'll see'. I did. That first ball was so quick I scarcely saw it. I had heard all about him but he was even quicker than I expected.
The Queensland wicket was a lot slower than the others and we made a good total through Ackerman and Gavaskar. I went in quite late and made 30 or 40.
The next game was in Perth. Now that was a quick wicket where ordinary little medium pacers seemed like Wes Hall and Charlie Griffiths. It didn't take much working out that Dennis was going to be real quick on his own track. The point was proved when I walked out to the middle of the WACA with Hutton before the game began and watched Richard bounce the ball higher than his head.
Australia won the toss, batted for a couple of days and made around 400. We began our innings that night and went to the ground early the next morning, well before play resumed. They had covered the wicket with tarpaulins followed by heavy plastic and then canvas. I know from my own experience that where you have temperatures of 100 during the day dipping to 60 in the evening, there are going to be changes. Add to that the wind they call the Fremantle Doctor that blows in and the inevitable result is that the wicket was going to sweat.
When I looked at it after the covers had been lifted, I saw that, sure enough, it had sweated really badly, and I knew what we were in for. It was going to be a very rough ride indeed. Gavaskar and Faroukh Engineer went out to resume their innings and I called the rest of the team to the window and told them to watch the first over the Lillee.
They all wanted to know why but I wanted them to see for themselves. The first ball Lillee bowled, Gavaskar went forward, the ball took off and went past his head at an incredible rate of knots. All the fellows in the dressing room immediately started to volunteer for the 9, 10 and 11 positions in the batting order.
Dennis had 0-11 overnight and finished up with 8 for 29. I had never seen anything like it. The laws of gravity tell you that if a moving object hits anything it must slow down. But this wicket was quick and bouncy and it really looked as though the ball was taking off after it had pitched.
Gavaskar played one from Dennis down to deep third man. He called Faroukh for an easy single but Faroukh quickly held up an arresting hand and shouted, 'No, no, no.' A few minutes later, the boot was on the other foot as Faroukh played one into the deep and called for three. This time it was Gavaskar who ran two and shouted, 'No, no, no.' Neither of these two fine batsmen wanted to face Lillee on this track.
I was getting on a bit but I still possessed that competitive edge. Facing pace wasn't going to be my problem even at 36 years of age. I walked in to bat when we were just over the 100 for five wickets down.
The first ball Dennis bowled to me had gone before I got my bat up. The second reared and hit me on the glove and Ian Chappell took the catch. As I walked past him, still 20 yards from the wicket, I said, 'I always thought you were a good friend and now I know that you are a very good friend.'
In the second innings, I made a better contribution with 30 or 40 while Rohan Kanhai scored 100. But on the way he took a ball in the chest from Dennis and did not play again until the last of the five Tests. Dennis was so quick he made Graham McKenzie look like a spin bowler. He was probably the quickest that I have ever seen. Frank Tyson was consistently the faster, but on that Perth wicket, Dennis was faster than anyone else I played against in my life.
When I played against Frank Tyson in the West Indies and he played for the Jim Swanton team, the wicket in Trinidad was a lot slower but Frank was still hustling through. I would have liked to see how quick he was on that WACA wicket.
The Rest of the World side took some media punishment for our performances, me in particular as captain. I was determined that we were going to do better when the tour moved on to Melbourne, never one of my luckier grounds. It was, in fact, the only major ground in Australia where I had not made a century. Dennis had me for that duck in Perth and obviously fancied me again. When I went in he was brought on and I played too early from memory of the Perth wicket and was out for a duck once more.
That evening I went into the Aussies' dressing room and I was sitting next to Ian Chappell with Dennis Lillee standing close by. I said to Ian, 'I hear you have a fellow by the name of Lillee and every time I come in he bowls me bouncers. I want you to tell him that I can bowl quick, too. Tell him as well that I can also bat a bit better than he can and to look out for me when he comes in to bat.'
I knew that he could hear everything I said and I had deliberately used just his surname, the way they used to do in England with the professionals, to rile him.
Australia went in to bat the next day and they had a few runs on the board when Dennis came in. I was bowling at the time and when I ran up I was trying to get him out to finish the innings, not knock him out, although I hadn't forgotten what I said. Dennis was extremely careful in the way he got behind the ball.
Tony Greig, who never forgets anything and doesn't give an inch, came up to me and said, 'Why don't you let him have it?'
'Have what?' I asked innocently.
'The bouncer,' answered Tony.
I bowled a couple more on a length and Dennis was nicely behind them. Then was the time to bowl the bouncer. I told Tony that I was going to bowl it outside the off stump and not in line. I just wanted to let Dennis know I could do it as well, not hurt him. The ball flew past his nose and he turned pink, changing colour completely. I knew that I had him and the next ball I took the weight off, he slogged and skied a simple catch to Tony at mid-off.
At the end of play I went back to the Australian dressing room, smiling as I sat next to Ian again.
'What are you grinning about?' he asked.
'You're my friend. I can't come in here and smile with you?'
He knew what I was smiling about and he laughed. 'Even before Dennis got to the dressing room he hit the bloody wall and said that he was going to show that bastard Sobers what fast bowling was all about next time,' he said.
'Ian, you know me. I have never been afraid of anything. He has the ball and I have the bat. Let him do what he has to do.'
When I came in to bat for the second time we stood at 146 for 3 with a lead of 45. The first couple of balls hit the middle of the bat and before many minutes had passed Dennis came on snorting like an enraged bull, looking for my blood. I hit him all round the field. That was the innings when I scored 254 and Sir Donald Bradman said it was the best innings he had ever seen on Australian soil, even better than the 132 I scored at the Gabba in the famous tied Test. When I walked back to the pavilion after my innings, the Aussies, as always, were the first to lead the applause and right out there in front was Lillee who said to me, 'I have had my arse cut properly today. I had heard about you and read about you and now I have seen you. I really appreciate it.'
That was the way it was in those days, and Dennis and I became firm friends from then on.
That (innings) was probably as close to perfection I ever came with the bat.
Extracted from GARRY SOBERS: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY published in hardback by Headline Book Publishing and available from all good bookshops. Copyright (C) 2002 Sir Garfield Sobers.
