To say Garry Sobers was an all-rounder is like saying Michelangelo painted or Mozart played the piano. The analogy is not accidental, although the word ‘genius’ is often used in sport indiscriminately. Sobers was an absolute, beyond comparison in a sport where he was so far above everybody else that he would have been first choice (ahead of Don Bradman) for the Earth in an inter-planetary match against Mars or Jupiter. His passing at the age of 89 has taken from us the finest cricketer ever to have drawn breath.When he turned 80, Bishan Bedi, a great friend, wished him and asked how he felt. Sobers replied simply, “It is better than the alternative.”It is one of the game’s quirks that few writers have captured Sobers in his entirety, not even fellow West Indian C.L.R. James who knew him well. He was large, he contained multitudes. Those fortunate enough to share the pitch with him lacked the vocabulary, those who wrote from a distance lacked the intimacy.Over the years Sobers was revealed to me by those who played with him. He was one of the greatest left arm fast bowlers, a remarkable orthodox left arm spinner as well as a bowler of back-of-the-hand googlies. For younger Indian fans, it is as if Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav were combined in one man. He was too one of the greatest batters ever, his first Test century being the world record 365 against Pakistan when he was 21.As a fielder he made a habit of taking blinders close by with the nonchalance that was the stamp of everything he did. Any one of his gifts alone – as batter, fast bowler, orthodox spinner and googly bowler – would have made him world class in any generation. Put together, they speak of a player the likes of which we may never see again.In an essay on Sobers, C.L.R. James quoted William Hazlitt: “Greatness is great power, producing great effects. It is not enough that a great man has great power in himself, he must show it to all the world in a manner that cannot be hid.”I once watched a match on television in Philadelphia with the off spinner Lance Gibbs, once world record holder for the number of wickets and off whom Sobers had taken miraculous catches. Sobers was fielding at silly point to Gibbs and as the batter defended, Sobers, expecting a catch, moved to his left, his stronger side. But the ball flew to his right. In one smooth action, as if he had been practicing just that move, Sobers changed direction and took the catch. Gracefully, unhurriedly, as with everything he did. It was like a ballet artiste changing directions mid-dance.Gibbs, who must have been in his mid-70s, leapt out of his chair as he must have leapt on the field that day. The greatest, the greatest, the greatest, he kept murmuring.Tiger Pataudi has written in his book about a minor match they played together where Sobers took five wickets in five balls, and as Tiger says, had all his teammates under pressure in case they dropped a catch off the sixth. There are stories of Sobers in such games that have become part of the legend. Sobers shaping to play defensively, changing his mind on hearing the no-ball call and hitting a fast bowler for six; Sobers running back to the sightscreen to take a catch off his own bowling.Anecdotes help us get closer to the player than mere statistics could, although in Sobers’s case, the statistics aren’t too shabby. In 93 Tests he made 8,032 runs at an average of nearly 58 with 26 centuries, claimed 235 wickets and held 109 catches. He played just a single one-day international; he would have been the six-in-one cricketer (he captained the West Indies in 39 Tests) franchises would have been happy to break their banks for in T20. He was the first batter to hit six sixes in one first class over, after all. You can’t exaggerate his talents.Sobers was more than a sportsman, more than a cricketer. He was both a symbol and the hope of a nation. His rise from poverty to stardom was a “signal of hope for collective redemption”, wrote Hilary Beckles.It may have been an external imposition by later generations who saw in Sobers a redemptive hero, a role he was not particularly keen to or suited to play. Playing in Rhodesia caused a dent in his world renown. He played league and first class cricket in both England and Australia. Wisden pointed out, “he was the victim of his unique range of talents – and the jet age. Because he was capable of doing so much, he was asked to do it too frequently. He did more than any other cricketer, and did it more concentratedly because high speed aircraft enabled him to travel half across the world in a day or two. Perhaps the long sea voyages between seasons of old had a restorative effect.”I never saw Sobers in action although thanks to YouTube I have seen some of his innings. Yet, like a host of his fans around the world, I feel a personal loss. When you feel great loss, it is the cliches that rush to your mind. End of an era. There will never be his like again. We are all the poorer. Each is true. A genius passes; cricket’s only one in my book.Sobers would have turned 90 in two weeks’ time. Bishan Bedi is gone, and I am not sure Sobers himself would have thought a decade later if it would have been better than the alternative.