The greatest cricketing all-rounder who ever lived never went out to break records. Sir Garfield Sobers just played the situation.

When he hit six sixes of Malcolm Nash – and became the first man to do so in a first class game – he was just reacting to the situation.

“When I went in we needed quick runs and it didn’t matter, so I just took my chance.

“I had nothing to lose and when it got to the last ball I decided I should try to do it because it was so close.

“I had never given it any thought. It just happened on the spur of the moment.”

Nash thought he’d got Sobers out on the fifth ball when fielder Roger Davis caught the Barbados-born big hitter on the boundary. Davis’s momentum took him over the line.

That gave Sobers the opportunity to become the first player to do the feat.

“If you are watching TV you can see the decision was right. I was ready to walk, as you know in the film, but the umpire decided it was six.”

Nash, a 23-year-old Welshman, was a fast-bowler who had turned to spin in the match at Swansea because the pitch suited the slower bowlers. He had a word with Sobers afterwards.

“He said I must remember he was also involved.

“I couldn’t have done it without him.”

Sobers, speaking to The Guide ahead of an appearance in Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre, remembers his record-breaking 365 not out against Pakistan in 1958 Jamaica in a similarly moderate manner.

He was only in his 17th test and had not yet scored a hundred at test level.

But he always used to tell his critics that he only needed one stroke of luck and he would make big scores. For ten hours during the herculean innings he never gave a chance.

“Records are made to be broken,” he says, recalling the feat. “I don’t go out to break records I go out there to play the situation. I don’t go looking for these kinds of things. I always played for the team. The runs would not have meant the same thing in a drawn match.”

The record has since been beaten twice by Brian Lara and by Australian Matthew Hayden and Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene.

Sobers had such talent he could have a drink and still perform. In fact, as he writes in his autobiography, the late nights motivated him.

“I have always been a free spirit and maybe not always the conventional professional cricketer. I like to gamble, I certainly enjoy a drink and I never objected to a late night out.”

During his final test at Lord’s he made 150 not out after an all-nighter with fellow player Clive Lloyd and former West Indian spinner Reg Scarlett.

After an evening dancing in a London club he went straight to the team’s hotel bar. When morning arrived he had a cold shower to prepare for facing England pace bowler Bob Willis.

He missed the first five balls but hit the sixth with the middle of his bat, which settled his nerves. At one point he was going so well he refused a toilet break but nipped off for a brandy and port in the dressing room on 132.

“If you can go out all night then you do it. You can’t do it if you are failing but if you are performing you are doing nothing wrong and what is the difference? The reason for playing in a game is to perform.”

The late nights helped him relax, sleep properly and he felt fresh and ready to go the next day.

“It was not harming me and in fact it gave me the motivation I needed,” he told sports psychologist Dr Rudi Webster for his book Winning Ways, when the former Warwickshire and West Indian fast bowler asked what was Sobers’ motivation.

“When I was out late at night I had to make runs the next morning.”

The late nights were not the only thing which motivated him.

“What really motivated me was to look at the scoreboard and see what West Indies needed.”

He could bowl, too. He opened the bowling for West Indies with his brisk medium pace and took 235 test wickets. He says nobody was impossible to bowl to but in his day tail-enders were less effective. Without the arms guards and helmets, they were scared they would get hit.

Lately there have been number 11s getting in the 90s. Jimmy Anderson’s knock against India is one example.

“Fellas have more opportunities to bat because they are playing so many different tournaments.

“Years ago tail-enders were very weak. Back then if you bowled a bouncer you were gonna get them out. You had to expect runs from your top order. Now fellas at number seven and number eight are expected to contribute.”

Sir Garfield Sobers appears at Eastbourne Congress Theatre, Carlisle Road, Eastbourne, Sunday, August 17. Starts 7.30pm, £20. Call 01323 412000. www.champions-speakers.com.