State funeral for cricket legend set for July 29

BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos, Jul 21, CMC – The Bar­ba­dos gov­ern­ment Tues­day said that the state fu­ner­al of Na­tion­al Hero and for­mer West In­dies crick­et cap­tain, Sir Garfield Sobers, will take place on Ju­ly 29, at the Kens­ing­ton Oval.

The crick­et leg­end died last Fri­day at the age of 89.

“The State Fu­ner­al for the Right Ex­cel­lence, Sir Gar­ry Sobers, is go­ing to be held at Kens­ing­ton at 10am on Ju­ly 29th. This is the Mec­ca, this is where Sir Gar­ry is best known, this is one of the icon­ic crick­et­ing grounds and so we will send him off in a Thanks­giv­ing cer­e­mo­ny that will take the for­mat of a state fu­ner­al on the 29th of Ju­ly,” Health and Well­ness Min­is­ter, Lisa Cum­mins, told a news con­fer­ence.

“But we al­so have to ac­knowl­edge that he is our own, he is a Bar­ba­di­an first and fore­most, he is loved by our peo­ple but he is al­so a fam­i­ly man,” she said.

“And on that ba­sis we have al­so in the core plan­ning team a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the fam­i­ly, the Sobers fam­i­ly, and that is the per­son of La­dy Car­ol Ja­cobs who is rep­re­sent­ing the fam­i­ly and en­sur­ing that the fam­i­ly’s wish­es are in­cor­po­rat­ed in the plan­ning of the state fu­ner­al,” she added.

Sir Gar­ry, con­sid­ered as the great­est all-rounder in the sport of crick­et, passed away at his home in High­gate Gar­dens. Since his death, the world has been pay­ing trib­ute to the Bar­ba­di­an and West In­di­an crick­et leg­end.