Cricket is a game of etiquette and gentility. While Gary Sobers played with grace and elegance, he also had guts, determination, nerve and an aggression, that if not new to the game, was certainly unusual. Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club would be a different club without Sobers, and indeed, cricket itself, wouldn’t be what it is today either.
Gary Sobers had a friendly arrogance and was arguably, the most gifted of any test cricketer before or since.
Despite being courted by seven counties, Sobers signed for Notts in 1968. Not only was he the first Black player to play for the county side but he was also the first Black player to captain Notts.
Sport is always described in moments, and the moment that defines Sobers, certainly as a Notts player, came against Glamorgan, in his first season with the club, when he became the first player in first-class cricket to hit six consecutive sixes in one (six ball) over.
Watching the grainy monochrome footage back, it’s a great bit of batting with the first two sixes hit cleanly out of the ground over long on. Even as Roger Davis catches the ball off the fifth ball before tumbling over the boundary for another six, Sobers remains entirely calm and doesn’t flinch from hitting the next ball over square leg and “Way down to Swansea” as the commentator puts it. To Sobers, even though the last ball of Malcolm Nash’s fabled over was full and straight, he clearly regarded it a formality. Indeed, few other cricketers could have swivelled so tightly to make the shot possible.
Cavalier
That one over changed cricket. Sobers had shown a new cavalier style, so it’s somewhat strange to hear that what has become known as ‘Bazball’ was invented and named after New Zealand cricketer (and England coach) Brendon McCullum, in 2022.
At the time of his Notts career, Sobers was the holder of the highest ever score in a test match, 365, made against Pakistan in 1958 (aged 21). Surprisingly, it was his maiden test century, showing again his irrepressible willpower and rebellious streak to push on.
At the time, snobbery among the game’s officialdom (The MCC) meant that the score wasn’t universally accepted as the highest in tests, since only Ashes matches between England and Australia were then regarded as worthwhile competition. Len Hutton’s 364 in the 1938 Ashes match at The Oval was regarded as the finer achievement, even though Sobers had beaten it in an innings of 10 hours (three hours less than Hutton had taken).
Sobers was certainly the most versatile test player; he batted left-handed and bowled left arm fast-medium, left arm orthodox spin and left arm unorthodox spin (known today as leg spin) and he was a fine close fielder. Sobers defines the potency of the all-rounder.
Influence
Sobers’ mark on Notts CCC cannot be ignored. By not only signing a Black player (and making him captain) Notts were making both a statement and club history. The class segregation era (Gentlemen v Players) at Notts was genuinely buried in favour of true meritocracy and Sobers repaid the club, not only in living up to his promise as a player (and responsibility as a role model), but also with six years of loyalty at a time when he could have gone to play anywhere. Since 1968, other non-English players have also had prolific success at the club, not least fellow Barbadian, Franklyn Stephenson, who Sobers reckoned was “really hard done by” by the West Indies selectors after touring apartheid era South Africa.
Once said: “I enjoyed playing any type of cricket. Didn’t matter what type it was because I did not want to change my game. My game was built on one type of cricket: if there was a ball to hit, you hit it, whether it was Test matches, [or] whatever it was.”
Brief summary: Gary Sobers is surely the most versatile test cricketer in history. His influence over the pace of cricket today ironically means that there’s unlikely ever to be another quite like him.
Nottingham Rebels 
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