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All-time West Indies cricket great Garfield Sobers dies aged 89

All-time West Indies cricket great Garfield Sobers dies aged 89

Garfield Sobers, the graceful West Indian cricketer whose world-record Test innings of 365 not out as a 21-year-old set him on the path to becoming arguably the sport’s greatest allrounder, has died. He was 89. West Indies Cricket announced his death on Friday without providing a cause. “In the story of cricket, there are great players. There are champions. Then, there are those rare individuals who redefine the very meaning of greatness,” said Kishore Shallow, president of Cricket West Indies. “Sir Garfield Sobers was the greatest cricketer the world has ever seen. His mastery of batting, bowling and fielding was unparalleled, but his true significance reached far beyond the boundary ropes.” Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, with an extra finger on each hand, Sobers hit 26 Test centuries and had a Test average of 57.78 from batting that was both elegant and powerful. He was also a versatile bowler, dangerous with both wrist-spin and fast-medium deliveries. Sobers held a slew of records. His unbeaten 365 against Pakistan in 1958 — remarkably his first Test century — was the record score for 36 years, before countryman Brian Lara bettered it. He also was the first player to reach 8,000 runs in test cricket and to hit six sixes in one over in a first-class game, for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in English county cricket in 1968. He achieved all this while maintaining a party lifestyle. “Well, it’s an exaggeration to say I was partying every night. Just every other,” Sobers told The Guardian newspaper in 2002. Advertisement “The night before a Test match, I’d always be out and about all night. Sometimes, I didn’t sleep at all before a big game.” A statue of Sir Garfield Sobers outside the Kensington Oval cricket ground in Barbados [Jason O’Brien/Reuters] ‘Greatest of all time’ Sobers played 93 Tests for the West Indies from 1954-74, making his debut at age 17 and retiring at 38 with 8,032 runs, 235 wickets and 109 catches. He captained his country a then-record 39 times. He was the best fielder of his generation, alert at slip with his quick hands. Wisden rated him as one of the five best cricketers of the 20th century alongside Don Bradman, Jack Hobbs, Viv Richards and Shane Warne. For Bradman — widely recognised as the best cricketer of all time — Sobers was cricket’s greatest allrounder. Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in 1975 for services to cricket. Bradman had an extraordinary 100 votes and yet before his own death in 2001, “the Don” paid the ultimate tribute to Sobers. “He is, in my opinion, the greatest cricketer of all time,” said Bradman. Born July 28, 1936, Garfield St Aubrun Sobers was raised in a poor family which lived in a one-story wooden house. One of seven children, he was age five when his father, a merchant seaman, died at sea. Sobers played golf, football and basketball for Barbados, but devoted himself to cricket, learning the game on the beach with bats made of palm leaves and balls of rolled-up tar. Within a year of making his first-class debut at 16 and without ever being properly coached, Sobers was playing international cricket — initially as a left-arm slow bowler. He soon became known for his timing as a batter, the variety of his strokes and his ability to excel in all departments of the game. “He could do anything,” former Australia captain and legendary commentator Richie Benaud said. It took him 29 Test innings to reach three figures, against Pakistan in Kingston in February 1958. It was in that innings that he went on to become the youngest triple-centurion and then break Len Hutton’s world-record mark of 364, which had stood for nearly 20 years. Sobers was present when Lara broke his record against England in Antigua in April 1994, eventually getting out for 375. “There was a lot of pressure on him, people telling him not to break the record, to preserve it for the legend,” Sobers recalled. “So I spoke to him in the dressing room during his innings and said, ‘Go out and do it, man.’” Sobers is arguably most famous for smashing six sixes in one over, off of spinner Malcolm Nash in a match at Swansea as Sobers pushed Nottinghamshire towards a declaration. He was caught on the fifth delivery, but the fielder fell back over the boundary. Advertisement “Wherever I go [in] any part of the world, everybody mentions the six sixes,” Sobers told the BBC. “You know, it seems as though it’s the only thing I’ve ever done in cricket.” It made Nash a household name for the wrong reasons. “I reckon I get asked about it if not once a week then at least once a month,” he said. Sobers played for South Australia from 1961-64 and for Nottinghamshire from 1968-74. One of his best innings was a 254 for a Rest of the World team against Australia in 1972. He played only one one-day international, and was dismissed for 0. Sobers was one of the initial inductees in the ICC’s Hall of Fame in 2009. Shallow said Sobers “became more than a sporting icon”. “He became a symbol of Caribbean excellence, resilience, and possibility,” he said. “His achievements brought pride to Barbados, inspiration to the West Indies and admiration from every corner of the cricketing world. Sobers, Shallow added, “has completed his final innings, but his legacy will forever endure in the hearts of our region, and the story of the cricketing world.” Barbados’ singer Rihanna and former cricketer Garfield Sobers hug during the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony to mark the birth of a new republic in Barbados, Bridgetown, Barbados, November 30, 2021 [File: Toby Melville/Reuters] Cricket world mourns England Cricket Board also paid tribute on social media, calling Sobers “one of the greatest to ever play the game”. “Forever in our hearts, Sir Garfield Sobers,” they added. Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott praised Sobers, who he said “was like a panther with a purposeful, loping and

At least three killed and hundreds displaced by heavy rain in Chile

At least three killed and hundreds displaced by heavy rain in Chile

Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast says that he is travelling to the Biobio region to survey damage from floods. Published On 17 Jul 202617 Jul 2026 Torrential rain and fierce winds have lashed central and southern Chile, leaving at least three people dead and displacing hundreds more. President Jose Antonio Kast announced on Friday that he was travelling to the Biobio region, one of the most impacted, to survey the damage and the response from authorities. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “A lot of rain on the road, but it’s passable,” Kast wrote in a social media post, showing himself en route. “Take care.” Further heavy rainfall is expected on Friday in the country’s central zone. SENAPRED, the country’s disaster relief agency, has reported that 466 people remain in shelters, some of whom were evacuated as a preventative measure. Another 158 residents have been isolated by the rising water levels, mostly in the Coquimbo region. Alicia Cebrian, the head of the agency, said that seven people have been injured. SENAPRED announced evacuation orders for the Campamento Ribera del Rio area, near the commune of Talagante, citing rising river levels. The floods have disrupted life across Chile, with schools in some parts of the country suspending classes on Friday. The state-owned mining giant Codelco reported that it had stopped surface operations at the Andina mine due to storms. About 257,000 people remain without power, mostly in the south. Among those killed in the storms was a labourer clearing a road in the southern town of Negrete. Another person fell while cleaning a roof in Temuco, and a third victim suffered a fatal electric shock in the capital Santiago. Advertisement Kast, who campaigned in the 2025 election on a hardline, anti-crime platform, has pledged institutional support for those affected by the flooding. He was inaugurated as president in March, and the floods come less than six months into his term. Adblock test (Why?)

Will the Canadian wildfire smoke affect Spain vs Argentina World Cup final?

Will the Canadian wildfire smoke affect Spain vs Argentina World Cup final?

The World Cup final in New Jersey-New York hangs under a cloud of uncertainty as dense wildfire smoke billowing down from Canada has triggered unhealthy air quality alerts across the United States. Winds drifting south meant the capital, Washington DC, was also hard-hit on Friday, coming in at the second-highest “very unhealthy” ranking on the index, when authorities urge all people to avoid unnecessary outdoor activity. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list In New York and neighbouring New Jersey, where the final will be played on Sunday in an open stadium, the metro area was experiencing air that could be unhealthy for sensitive groups, an improvement after smog on Thursday made the Manhattan skyline barely visible. Detroit and Chicago posted air quality index readings in the “hazardous” range, with tracker IQAir stating they were the most polluted cities in the world. Forecasters at the National Weather Service warned the smoke may thicken overnight into Saturday morning. Roughly 80,000 fans are expected at the final, which takes place in the large, open-air stadium in the Meadowlands that is home to the NFL’s New York Giants and Jets. What’s the latest update from FIFA? FIFA confirmed on Friday that negative air quality from the wildfires did not currently represent a threat to the World Cup final. Earlier in the day, tournament organisers said they were “monitoring the situation closely”. “There’s been discussion about it, and we have somebody with the National Weather Service that sits in FIFA headquarters there, so we’re monitoring closely,” White House World Cup task force Executive Director Andrew Giuliani told a briefing. Advertisement President Donald Trump is set to meet FIFA President Gianni Infantino later on Friday. What are experts saying about the smoke? Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist for NWS, told the AFP news agency that winds over the Great Lakes could push more smoke into the northeastern US, which could keep skies hazy. But he said forecasts for that region are expecting some improvement. “I don’t believe that this should be as impactful as if you might be playing a game today,” Mullinax said. The issue for the final, said Joel Dreessen – an air quality forecaster for the state of Maryland, is whether more smoke spills south after weekend storm systems. “Some of the models are starting to indicate that we’ll start to pull down some smoke,” he said. Were any other matches affected by the weather? Yes, but not because of wildfire smoke. Mexico’s knockout match against England was rumoured to be rescheduled due to inclement weather before organisers quietened the uproar and confirmed kickoff would be as scheduled. Prior to that, Mexico’s round-of-32 match against Ecuador was delayed for an hour due to stormy weather. Concerns about extreme heat in July prompted forecasters to warn about potential heat safety issues for some of the World Cup knockout matches. A powerful “heat dome” settled over large parts of the US and Canada, bringing with it furnace-like conditions and temperatures expected to exceed 43 degrees Celsius (110F) in several host cities. Is the Canadian wildfire connected to climate change? In cities across the US Midwest and Northeast, people wore masks outdoors to filter out the dangerous air. In New York, libraries and train stations were handing them out for free. The upper Midwest, which is closer to the fires, was especially affected, with parts of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin all recording air quality readings deep into the “hazardous” range for days. The NWS extended its air quality alert in Chicago through Friday, adding “wildfire smoke may return tomorrow evening and continue into Sunday.” Advocates have stressed the connection between repeated episodes of wildfire smoke and climate change. “Increasingly smoky skies underscore the importance of a rapid transition to clean energy rather than building more polluting fossil fuel infrastructure that further contributes to climate change,” said Paul Mathewson, the science programme director at the organisation Clean Wisconsin, among the states that have seen a sharp uptick in smoky days in recent years. Mark Parrington, a scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, told AFP that climate change was providing conditions for a longer fire season, with higher surface air temperatures and lower soil moisture. Advertisement So, he explained, “when there’s an ignition we see these really large-scale, persistent burning where these fires can burn for weeks and weeks at a time through summer.” Has the Canadian wildfire been controlled? The blazes were worsening on Friday in Canada, where more than 200 fires were burning out of control, especially in Ontario, according to authorities there. The damage remains far off the pace of 2023, Canada’s worst wildfire season on record, when nearly 18 million hectares (44 million acres) burned in the country. But the intensity has rapidly escalated over the past week, with nearly 2.8 million hectares (7 million acres) burned since the start of the year, per the latest government figures. As of last Friday, that figure had stood at nearly 1.6 million hectares (4 million acres). Fires in Ontario have not caused any casualties, and several remote communities have been evacuated. Adblock test (Why?)