The ball that bound two cricket gentlemen

 One unforgettable delivery made history in 1964. More importantly, it forged a friendship between Malaysian doctor Alex Delilkan and cricket immortal Garfield Sobers that lasted a lifetime.

From Rienzie Delilkan

In March 1964, the world’s finest cricketer arrived in Malaysia at the peak of his powers.

Sir Garfield Sobers was already a sporting phenomenon. He held the world record for the highest individual Test score of 365 not out against Pakistan, could bat, bowl and field with equal brilliance.

He played first-class football in Barbados and was an outstanding golfer, handicap two left-handed, handicap four right-handed.

Sobers remains, for many, the greatest all-round cricketer the game has ever known.

Waiting for him that afternoon in 1964 at the KL Padang was a young houseman from Penang General Hospital named Dr Alex Delilkan — my father.

On paper, the contest seemed hopelessly one-sided. Dad was a right-arm wrist spinner bowling to perhaps the greatest left-handed batsman the game has produced. The angle favoured Sobers. The odds favoured Sobers.

Dad later told me he briefly considered bowling a googly before deciding to trust his stock delivery, his regular wrist spin, instead.

It proved to be the ball of his life.

Dad delivered a perfect ball that broke sharply from off to leg, clipping the off-bail between his bat and pad.

For a brief moment, the crowd fell silent. Thousands had come to watch Sobers bat. Instead, they had witnessed a little piece of Malaysian sporting history.

Sobers accepted it with characteristic grace. As he walked off, he looked at dad and said in his unmistakable Bajan (Barbados) accent: “Well bowled, mon. Well bowled.”

Competitive as ever, Sobers responded with the ball, ripping through Malaysia’s batting line-up in devastating fashion.

Yet another chapter followed the next day when Christie Shepherdson dismissed him again, caught behind for just one run — a footnote that deserves to be remembered alongside dad’s famous wicket.

For dad, that dismissal became the defining image of his cricket career. Ironically, only months later he suffered a heart attack. He went on to survive two more, living a rich, hearty life to the age of 90.

While he focused deeply on his medical career, becoming a renowned professor, his passion for cricket never faded.

He continued to play for Malaysia with the same quiet determination that shaped every part of his life, taking countless scalps and scoring numerous half-centuries

The wicket may have become famous, but dad never allowed it to define him.

Nor did Sobers forget it.

More than two decades later, the two men met again in Kuala Lumpur before a match between the Negeri Sembilan Yang di-Pertuan XI and the Royal Selangor Club President’s XI.

Sobers invited dad to dinner the night before the match, a gesture that reflected the mutual respect they had shared since that day in 1964.

Sadly, dad was not selected for the game, despite hoping for another opportunity to face the great man.

As his son, I know dad sometimes wondered whether history would remember him only as the man who bowled Sobers.

To me, he was so much more.

He was a devoted father, an exceptional teacher and a doctor who gave his life to caring for others.

Whatever he did, he gave everything he had, guided by a simple personal motto: “I tried my best.

With Sobers’ passing, I know the two great cricketers have met once more in a pavilion beyond our sight.

Perhaps they are talking about that famous ball. Perhaps they are laughing over dinner again.

And perhaps, somewhere on a perfect afternoon, they are walking back onto the field together. - FMT

Garfield Sobers (right) reunites with Dr Alex Delilkan (left) at a dinner two decades after their famous meeting in 1964. (Rienzie Delilkan pic)Rienzie Delilkan was a former Federal Territory and Malaysian Armed Forces cricketer and is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.