A TRUE sporting legend will be visiting Witham Cricket Club on Thursday when Sir Garfield Sobers comes to the Park to meet club members and engage in a special coaching session with their colts and junior players.

In an age when the term 'legend' is readily applied to sports stars, there can be no argument over whether it is merited when associated with the name of the West Indian great.

Sir Garfield is widely acknowledged as the finest cricketing all-rounder to have ever played the game.

The Barbadian played 93 Tests for the West Indies, scoring 8,032 runs at an average of 57.78, and taking 235 wickets at an average of 34.03 and his first-class career saw him score more than 28,000 runs, with more than 1,000 wickets to his name.

He is expected to be at Witham Cricket Club's home ground on Thursday (June 20) afternoon when he will conduct a coaching session with young players, before having a question and answer session with members and Witham captain Jake Wakelin said everyone at the club was excited by the prospect of the special visit.

Wakelin said: "It has come out of nowhere, but to have someone like that at our club is going to be incredible.

"He'll spend time with our colts players and then have a question and answer session and it was an opportunity that we just couldn't pass up.

"We're expecting between 100 and 150 people from the club and it's great for a club like Witham to have a legend of the game, someone who has achieved so much coming to spend time with us.

"Developing youth cricket is something that is very important to us and we pride ourselves on that.

"It's going to be so special for the young Witham players to meet and be coached for a while by someone like Sir Gary Sobers, but it will be very special indeed for members of all ages."