West Indies duo Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes were one of the best opening pairs in the history of test cricket. Gordon was a destructive batsman with one of the most powerful square cuts. Desmond was one of the fastest runners between wickets and kept the scoreboard moving at a brisk pace. The West Indian cricket fans took great pride in them and yet when one of them got out they would be dancing in the stands. Their joy was because of the aura of the one down batsman that came in when Greenidge or Haynes got out—Vivian Richards. He captured the imagination of cricket lovers as few have done before or after him.
Vivian Richards’ entry on the ground was a sight in itself. It was one of the most intimidating walks onto the wicket that any international batsman has ever had. Viv, as he was known, would initially jog from the dressing room to the ground and then walk quickly onto the wicket. He never wore a helmet and chewed his gum furiously. It was as if a boxer was entering the ring to deliver his first punch. Richards’ face showed tremendous confidence and absolutely no signs of nerve. His confidence also showed in the way he started his innings. With Richards, it was never about building an innings. His philosophy in his own words was—‘See ball, hit ball.’
What made Richards even more special was his temperament. He was a big-match player. In the 1979 World Cup final against England, Richards hit an unbeaten 138 on a day when Greenidge, Haynes, Clive Lloyd and Alvin Kallicharran fell cheaply. The ease with which Richards destroyed bowlers in English conditions was unprecedented. Most batsmen in international cricket look at tackling the movement of the ball with caution. Richards simply destroyed the moving ball.
In Australia in 1976, Richards attacked Jeff Thomson in a way few batsmen would dare to do so. This was only possible because he had one of the best eyes as a batsman. Such was his skill in overseas conditions that he scored two double-hundreds in England and a third in Australia. He also scored a near-double hundred in India against the likes of Bishan Singh Bedi, EAS Prasanna and Srinivas Venkatraghavan. Richards scored 146 at Perth in Australia. He scored a run-a-ball hundred against Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Derek Underwood at Lords in 1976. At the Gabba, Richards hit Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson for 145 runs. He was equally at ease against Imran Khan, Sarfaraz Nawaz and Qasim Umar at Multan.
Also Read: Bishan Singh Bedi challenged Mumbai’s dominance in cricket, took on BCCI for players’ rights
Domination by Viv
Richards’ contribution to West Indies cricket goes much beyond runs. His performances in England gave immense pride to the Caribbean people living in England.
One episode from 1976 tells us how much pride Richards attached to his cricket. Before the start of an important series, England captain Tony Greig desired to make the West Indies team ‘grovel’. The West Indies team under Lloyd were not impressed with the comments of the English captain. It was at that time when Richards came up with his famous remark- ‘Nobody talks to Viv Richards like that’.
He went on to score 800 plus runs with an average of over a hundred with three tons making Tony Greig look like an utter fool.
Richards reserved his best for England. He not only destroyed England in test matches in the UK but totally dominated English county cricket as well. His exploits in county cricket opened doors for his other teammates to earn respect in the format.
Richards was also instrumental in carrying forward the domination of West Indies in world cricket till the time he retired. In the 1960s, the Windies were the number one cricket team in the world because of the legacy of George Headley, the three W’s—Frank Worell, Everton Weekes, and Clyde Walcott—and great players like Garfield Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Kalicharan and Lloyd. Richards played an important role in carrying forward this legacy till the end of the 1980s.
He played some of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game, but no bowler other than India’s BS Chandrasekhar troubled him. Kapil Dev was in awe of him. Imran Khan said Richards was the best batsman he ever bowled to. Botham considered Richards to be a master batsman and Lillee confessed he could never dominate Richards the batsman.
Vivian Richards had the rare ability to dominate the opposition even before they bowled a ball to him. This was possible because of the way he carried himself on a cricket field.
Kush Singh @singhkb is founder, The Cricket Curry Tour Company. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)