The Longest Six Ever in cricket went a total of 560 miles. You read that right, 560 miles. No, it was not Chris Gayle mixed with The Incredible Hulk but rather a batsman by the name of Jimmy Sinclair. Jimmy was not using a cricket bat made from some incredible material and neither was the cricket ball super charged with some sort of rocket booster.
So how did Jimmy hit a six that went 556 miles?
Well, technically Jimmy never hit the six 556 miles but it still went that distance. Here is what happened.
Jimmy was batting at the Old Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. The Old Wanderers Stadium was situated on the train tracks. Jimmy was a hard hitting batsman with a penchant for clearing the ropes. One day as he hoisted the ball well out of the ground, it landed on the carriage of a loaded train.
The ball could not be retrieved before the train set off for its destination. The train was headed for Port Elizabeth and so the cricket ball that Jimmy Sinclair hit landed up in Port Elizabeth. This is approximately 560 miles away from the spot where Jimmy played the shot.
The ball was retrieved and sent back to Johannesburg where it was put on display in the Wanderers cricket club house. The story unfortunately did not have the happiest of endings as the ball along with many other great cricket artifacts were consumed by a fire in the latter part of the 20th century.
How far the ball would have gone if Jimmy was using one of today's modern day cricket bats is anyone's guess but I tend to think that Jimmy Sinclair would have scored himself a decent IPL contract.
