Odd fact of the day

Fitting into the "well I never knew that" category of sporting trivia, I came across this little gem just now. Today marks the 35th anniversary of Garry Sobers's one and only one-day international, against England at Headingley.

It was not a highlight in the West Indies all-rounder's otherwise glorious international career. Aged 37, he was caught behind off the bowling of Chris Old for a six-ball duck as West Indies were bowled out for 181 (in 54 overs!) and while Sobers did get one wicket, bowling Old, his only other reward on the day was to catch Tony Greig. West Indies lost by one wicket with three balls of the allotted 55 overs to go.

The gap between Sobers's Test average of almost 58 and his ODI average of zero is the highest by some distance (Bob Simpson's Test average was 47 and he averaged 18 in his two ODIs, while Vinod Kambli has a 22-run gap between his Test average of 54 and his ODI of 32), but I wonder what sort of batsman Sobers would have been had one-day cricket come around earlier in his career.

That he was an aggressive batsman is in no doubt - it is 40 years since he hit 36 off one over and all that - and he had an average of 38 from his 95 one-day county matches, which isn't bad considering that he was near the end of his career. And how would he have fared at Twenty20?

Comments

[Andrew Nixon]

I don't want anyone to think I've been investigating this or anything, I just came across another big gap completely by coincidence - that of Basil D'Oliveira, Test average of just over 40, ODI average of 10.

[Andrew Nixon]

There is at least one bigger gap than Bob Simpson's - that of Gavin Hamilton, ODI average of 35.28, Test average of 0.