US, July 24 -- July 17, 2026 was a sad day for me because Sir Garfield Sobers, the great cricket all-rounder from the West Indies and my sports superhero, passed away that day. I saw him play for the first time during the third cricket test at Eden Gardens when the West Indies team visited India in 1958-59.

This was the very first cricket test that my father, who was a member of Cricket Association of Bengal, took me with him to watch. Sobers scored a century to add to a double-century by Rohan Kanhai on the previous day. Unfortunately, India lost the test miserably by an innings and 336 runs.

However, I fell in love with the game of cricket. In those days it was a perfect "gentleman's game", played under a pleasantly warm sun on a cri...