A Guy’s View: Sir Garfield Sobers – the epitome of greatness

Thursday, July 28, 2016, marked the 80th birthday of The Right Excellent Sir Garfield Sobers. Thankfully, the Barbados Government did not let this milestone go without acknowledgement.

As his date of birth discloses, Sir Garry, as he is affectionately known, was born into a Barbados that was a depressed place for persons of his origins. Like most people around him, he would have been acquainted with poverty and little expectation. 

Sir Garry was born before the 1937 revolt which is now marked as the Day of National Significance in Barbados. That revolt was the response of Barbadians to the grinding poverty that characterised their lives. Historians have noted that, for black people like Sir Garry, living conditions then were not far removed from what existed a hundred years earlier. 

Prospects for a significant life were not good for a black boy born in the Bay Land during that period. We know of nothing which would have suggested that the young Garfield Sobers would have had a life different from what was common for boys like him at that time. And yet, he rose.

Much ink has been invested in recounting his glorious exploits on the cricket field. That investment is worthy. Much less has been said about what he symbolises and the great inspiration he can be for his nation.

The God of heaven has not blessed another human being with the natural cricketing talents of Sir Garry, but he has allowed him to display his skills for all of us to see. Fortunately, Sir Garry has always been a humble man who never stopped rubbing shoulders with his people. He is as approachable now as he ever was. All could see him and all could know him, not just know of him from stories.

His example should tell all of us that we are no less blessed than anyone else because of the place of our birth, the colour of our skin, or the title of our father. Cricket was Sir Garry’s canvas on which he painted, but there is no limitation on the fields of endeavour that await our success.

Sir Garry lives on to give this nation the confidence we need to conquer the big world that might not naturally have regard for people from small rocks in the sea. Following in his footsteps, many Barbadians have been putting this idea to the sword with their excellence in a wide array of activities. 

The question of what makes a nation great is an open one. Some may use the measure of military might. Others may point to economic achievement. When these considerations are used, countries like the United States of America, China, Germany and similar powerful states come to mind. 

One might even look to the Middle East with its oil giants. Countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates make billions of dollars from their oil. A recent temporary decline in oil prices does not alter the tremendous wealth they have made and stand to make in the future. These countries do not have to obtain nuclear weapons to be considered among the great ones.

Barbados may never pass the test of greatness by either of these yard sticks. Having said this, one could argue that bombs and oil do not great make. These standards may not capture the true greatness that is of importance to a people. This country has travelled a long distance in delivering greatness to the world in the form of people of excellence. 

Barbados should strive to make its people great. If this can be attained, we would have scaled the heights of greatness. Any honest assessment would conclude that this has been the quest of successive Governments for the past 50 years. The degree of our success would depend on who you ask, and when. In my view, there is no reasonable measure that would produce a report other than a good one. 

Yes, one would hope for better, but striving for better does not deny good. It must be accepted that life is not lived in a straight line. There will always be peaks and valleys. While on a journey through the valley, one should not build a wall house and advertise an address. 

“Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances.” Bruce Barton’s words speak to the importance of self-belief. These words equate to those of Samuel Johnson who noted that “Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.” 

Everyone who saw Sir Garry play cricket could see that he oozed confidence. No bowler could intimidate him when he was batting and no batsman could deter him when he had the ball in his hand. He was a confident man, and it showed.

All the youngsters with whom I grew up walked to the batting crease with up-turned collar and a distinct lean. No, we were not all deformed. We were simply emulating the great man who made these features popular. We did not have his talents, but emulation was the closest we could come to worshipping him.

We did not think that he was God. We were all born “Christian” and had already been told that another man was God. Our parents forced us into church to worship that other man, but we all paid more attention to Sir Garry. 

Sir Garry has shown us that the size of one’s country of origin has nothing to do with greatness. As a youngster, it never occurred to me that Barbados was a small country. I was familiar with the square miles, but that never made me feel that we were small, because no one told me that I was limited in any way. It took an under-achieving politician to keep telling me that Barbados was too small a place for its people to expect great things. We must reject that lame mindset.

This country will achieve greatness when its people achieve significantly. Our people will be significant achievers when they are confident that they can be. William Wordsworth put it this way: “To confidence and success, two things, contradictory as they may seem, must go together – humble dependence and manly independence: humble dependence on God, and manly reliance on self”.