Longest Six in Cricket of 556 Miles. Really?

The Longest Six Ever went a total of 556 miles. Yes, you read that right, 556 miles.! No, it was not Chris Gayle but rather a batsman known as Jimmy Sinclair. Jimmy Sinclair was not using any type of illegal cricket bat made from some incredible material and neither was the cricket ball super charged with some type of rocket booster.

This is undoubtedly the most bizarre fact related to cricket. Just imagine the facial expressions of a bowler, who realizes that he has been hit for a 6 and the cricket ball has travelled for 556 miles.

So how did Jimmy hit a ‘6‘ that went 556 miles?

Well, technically Jimmy Sinclair never hit the six 556 miles but it still went that distance. Here is what happened.

Sinclair was batting at the Old Wanderers Stadium located in Johannesburg. The Old Wanderers Stadium was situated near the train tracks. Sinclair was a hard hitting batsman. One day he struck the ball so badly that it landed on the carriage of a loaded train.

The ball could not be recovered before the train set off for its destination. The train was headed for Port Elizabeth and so the ball that Sinclair hit landed up in Port Elizabeth. This is approximately 556 miles away from the spot where Jimmy played the shot.

The ball was recovered and sent back to Johannesburg where it was put on display in the Wanderers cricket club. The story unfortunately didn’t have the happiest of endings as the ball along with many other great cricket artifacts were consumed by a fire in 20th century.

How far the cricket ball would have gone if Sinclair was using one of today’s modern cricket bats is anyone’s guess but I tend to think that he would have scored himself a decent IPL contract.