It was on this day, 38 years ago, that Viv Richards first swaggered onto a Test ground. The Indian fans in Bangalore that day got the first glimpse of a gait that soon become recognized by cricket fans around the globe.
His debut was inauspicious with scores of 4 and 3.
It was the other debutant that rose to the occasion and stole the headlines with opener Gordon Greenidge peeling off 93 (run out) and 107.
But Viv was never a man content with living in the shadows.
In his next Test in Delhi he scored an unbeaten 192.
But that innings proved to be a one-off as his early form in the Test arena was patchy.
After 11 Test appearances his average was a mere 30.4.
At that point he was part way through his first tour of Australia.
It was at this time that he began working with renowned Caribbean-born sports psychologist Rudi Webster.
Richards, a free flowing batsman, was finding it frustrating batting down the order behind the likes of Greenidge, Roy Fredericks, Alvin Kallicharran and Lawrence Rowe.
Part of Webster’s way of dealing with Richards’ insecurities was to petition skipper Clive Lloyd to elevate him in the batting order.
In the last two Tests of the 1975/76 summer Richards was thrust into the opening position.
The move proved highly profitable as he reeled off scores of 30, 101, 50 and 98.
By the time he played his next series he found himself at number three, the position he would assume for the bulk of his career.
In the end it was his teammates who were regularly reduced to mere bit players.
It was on the 1976 tour off England that Richards truly displayed his genius.
In four Tests he made innings of 232, 135 and 291.
His tally for the series was 829 runs at the Bradmanesque average of 118.
Had he not been unavailable for the second Test at Lord’s he may actually have bettered Bradman’s all-time series record of 974 runs that he set in England in 1930.
As it was, Richards compiled 1710 runs at 90.0 for the calendar year, a record that would stand for three decades.
‘The Master Blaster’, as he became known, had that rare capacity to single-handedly draw people through the turnstiles, something that only the truly great players can boast.
Whenever he swaggered to the crease, with an almost lordly disdain and slowly rotating his arms to loosen up, spectators slid forward in their seats.
And more often than not, Richards delivered.
At times it was like watching Gulliver take on the Lilliputian XI as his expansive and attacking approach to batting proved that nothing succeeds like excess.
Through his 17-year international career he produced some of the most memorable and exhilarating innings in the history of the game.
He still holds the record for the fastest Test century – fittingly scored in his native Antigua in 1986 against England – posting the milestone off a mere 56 deliveries.
It was the signature knock during his 121-Test career that saw him amass 8540 runs at 50.2 with 24 centuries.
In the one-day arena his most famous innings came again at the hands of the hapless England team.
At Manchester in 1984 the Windies found themselves at 9-166, at which point Michael Holding came out to join Richards.
The pair set about putting on an unbeaten stand of 106 for the tenth wicket with Holding supplying just ten runs.
Richards finished on 189 not out – a then world record – out of a team total of 9/272.
It was recognized by Wisden as the greatest knock in ODI history.
It would be 13 years before Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar bettered it.
Richards was ahead of his time as a one-day batsman, compiling his runs at a strike rate of 90.2, a stratospheric figure back in the 1970s and ‘80s.
In all, he averaged 47.0 with 11 centuries en route to 6721 runs from his 187 one-day appearances.
But not all of Richards’ most memorable feats came with willow in hand.
In the inaugural World Cup final at Lord’s in 1975 he ran out Alan Turner and Ian and Greg Chappell with a hat-trick of direct hits.
Whether prowling the covers or standing at second slip with hands like eiderdown, Richards was a fieldsman of the highest calibre who could lay claim to the best of all-time.
The arrival of helmets meant little to Richards who refused to don one, choosing instead to rely on his phenomenal eye.
In a Test match at the MCG in 1979/80 he was hit flush on the jaw by a Rodney Hogg bouncer with the ball dropping at Richards’ feet.
His reaction was two-fold – first calling for a fresh stick of chewing gum from the rooms and then dismembering Hogg who went for ten an over through his next six overs before he left the field citing a back strain.
Richards’ hawk-like eye allowed him to play with a bowler’s mind and forced him to rethink their approach to getting him out.
Anything full, or just short of a length, and within five centimetres wide of off-stump was likely to be despatched, around a braced front leg, to the on-side boundary with the ease of someone knocking the top off an egg.
Drop short, and it was a matter of waiting for the return of the ball from amongst the seats as he wielded his willow in the manner that d’Artagnan did his rapier.
For opponents who felt his full wrath it was akin to descending to Dante’s ninth circle of hell.
Many a bowler crumpled like a cheap seersucker suit at the hands of Richards’ brutality with the blade.
He later captained the West Indies and through 50 Tests at the helm, never lost a series.
Few argued with the venerable staff at Wisden when he was named alongside Bradman, Jack Hobbs, Garfield Sobers and Shane Warne as one of the five Cricketers of the 20th Century.
And like Bradman, Hobbs and Sobers before him, Richards was also knighted.
Like most of his West Indian contemporaries, Richards was the recipient of an exotic multi-barrel name – Isaac Vivian Alexander.
But, like Pele, Madonna and Sting just one name would suffice to guarantee instant recognition.
Viv – a name that evoked, and still does for those lucky enough to have seen him in his pomp, batting at its most entertaining and brutal best.
His place among the pantheon of batting greats has long been etched in stone.
Jason
Guest
"I wont enter into a discussion about what era had harder cricket or better bowlers, but to average 50 in test cricket in the 70′s and 80′s was a much greater achievement than in the 2000′s." Only Greg Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar,Viv Richards, Javed Miandad and Allan Border managed it.
Jason
Guest
Lillee to Viv. As good as cricket gets.
pope paul v11
Guest
To be fair to Hoggy, who went 6-0-59-0, he did actually have a back injury. I remember reading somewhere that Richards said facing Lillee and Thomson in 75/76 terrified and ultimately made him. At the time I felt sorry for the Windies. I need not have worried.
Jason Cave
Guest
Talk to anyone in the West Indies and they'll tell you about the day Sir Vivian Richards took on one Jeff Thomson on the 1977-78 Australian cricket tour of the West Indies. It was like Russian Roulette. Every time Thomson bowled short (and even shorter, and was repeatedly no-balled), Richards kept hooking for 4s and 6s. Even in 1991, Ian Chappell asked several West Indies supporters when covering the 1991 tour 'What was the fastest bowling you've ever seen?", the answer was "Thomson to Richards, 1978."
gb
Guest
I remember seeing Viv make his 100th first class centruy from memory vs NSW at the SCG in the 88/89 tour. i recall that day he took a particular liking to Greg Matthews. The crowd was paltry and you often heard the ball rattling around the seats on the eastern side of the ground and a hapless NSW fieldsman having to jump the boundary fence to go looking for it.
Arthur Fonzarelli
Guest
In Viv's era there were no roped in boundraies if you wanted 6 or 4 you had to go all the way over or to the fence. Pitches were generally much more bowler friendly and bat technology was obviously not as advanced. I wont enter into a discussion about what era had harder cricket or better bowlers, but to average 50 in test cricket in the 70's and 80's was a much greater achievement than in the 2000's. Viv was a superstar who would have been devastating batting on flat wickets with short boundaries and more advanced bats. My greatest memory was Viv backing away to the leg side and hitting a lofted off drive off JeffThomson over the long boundary at the MCG that went about 25 rows back, in the early 80's.
Glenn Mitchell
Expert
To make it easier to read on an iPhone etc.
rl
Guest
Gread read Glenn. With Viv's modest returns early on, makes you wonder why our selectors don't persist with Khawaja? I'm not suggesting he is the next Viv, but it seems Khawaja is just that step above in class from Quiney (although I'm very happy for Quiney to prove me wrong)
Brendon
Guest
Take those rose coloured glasses off, Kebab Connoisseur. As a young kid I went to the first day of the SCG test of the 1990/91 Ashes test. There was 26,000 people but it wasn't a sell out. Compare that to the 40,000+ and a sell out for the opening day of the 2010/11 SCG Ashes match. And do you remember the test match in Brisbane in the 80's that had a whopping 16,000 spectators ... over five days. There was huge crowds for ODI cricket though. You can remember the mid to late 80 as an enjoyable time to watch cricket, much of it was. Sport doesn't have to be at its technical best to be enjoyable. But you can't say that test cricket was strong in the mid to late 80's. No South Africa, rebel tours that gutted England and weakened Australia and a young Sri Lanka that was still improving. Gower was a very good batsmen, stylish and scored 8000 runs but you can't rank him as on the level as Richards or Greg Chappell.
The Kebab Connoisseur
Guest
My day is still going on. Just pity those that not all so called commentators on the topic missed that wonderful era of the late 70s through to the early 90s. World cricket has struggled the past 20 years in my opinion. Any wonder crowds to tests have dropped, a lot has to do with the poor standards we are seeing since the early 1990s. If you had those great teams still around, you simply would never have needed 20/20. People were enthralled for days on end. I do not think it is the game's length at all, just the poor standards exhibited nowadays by bowlers and batsmen. Sure the slip and sliding of the fielding is better, but that saves a couple of runs an innings and is a Phyric Victory at best. Good ego boost for the fielding coach. When you had the likes of Viv, Gower, Botham, Lloyd, the Chappells out there, people planted themselves anywhere they could to absorb the battles. The bowlers were amazing also, the speed and bounce they had was insane. You feared for your team, now they get these lovely flat tracks to just tap them away from their armpits.
Brendon
Guest
In the SCG tests from the 84/85 and 88/89 series Richards was dismissed by Holland, Bennet, Border and Hohns and averaged 25 from 4 matches there. To be fair to Richards he didnt need to play spin particularly well since there wasnt many quality spinners. Nothing like when you had Warne, MacGill, Kumble, Muralitharan, Vettori, Saqlain Mushtaq going around.
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Viv Richards was lucky he played in the pre-Warne era. He thought with his admittadly cast-iron balls, and therefore couldnt play legspin - Qadir got him cheap a couple of times. The 1984 Sydney test was also notable for the inept and incompetant West Indies selection and captaincy - they'd just lost to NSW playing four quicks on the same ground, and they went in against Australia with ... four quicks.
Jason
Guest
Yep. Viv is easily the best ever ODI batsman.
Brendon
Guest
I remember ODI's being played on boxing day. I wonder if the "in my day" people here can tear themselves away from their Dad's Army VHS tapes to remember that. I remember the 84/85 season quite sharply. Mainly Clive Lloyd (who retired as the top ranked batsmen at around 40 years of age) and Malcolm Marshall.
Brendon
Guest
I just find it amusing that the old "everything was better in my day" brigade think that somehow test cricket was stronger in years gone by than it is now. Wrong. Viv is a great. Then again so are Border, Gavaskar and Miandad. Viv was the best when he was young but after 30 he tailed off and his dominance faded. Especially considering how weak test cricket was in the mid to late 80's.
Don Corleone
Guest
As a young fella I had the privilege of watching the mighty West Indies at the SGC test in the dying days of 1984. Viv was underwhelming in that encounter actually. Interestingly, the Sydney test started on 30 December 1984 and the Boxing Day test that year started on 22 December 1984...it's funny what is sacred, traditional and set-in-stone until you look back into the history books. Also it's interesting how you reflect on the hopeless Australian team of the mid-80s and all conquering Windies. Australia thumped the bowling attack of Marshall, Garner, Holding and Walsh for 471 (Wessels 173) in the first innings and were demolished by Bob Holland (6/54) in their innings and we bowled out for 163. The Windies lost the test by an innings and 55 runs. The greatest memory of that game was of Clive Lloyd effortlessly hitting consecutive 6s over the Paddington end sightscreen off Holland.
The Kebab Connoisseur
Guest
Champ, Viv started playing in 1974, so he played one of the toughest Aussie teams in their prime. The mid 1980s were a time when Viv had already been in the caper for a decade and made his name. England was very strong in the 1970s and into the 1980s. India was garbage. Viv was one of the greats, no questions about that. Only an ignorant fool doubts that.
Brendon
Guest
Strong Australia? You mean the "strong" Australia sides of the 84/85 and 88/89 home series? Or that strong Australian touring side in 84? The 1991 Australian touring side was pretty good. Viv averaged 25 that series. Strong England? You mean that whitewash series in England 84 or the 4-0 series 88 also in England? Or the other whitewash series 5-0 in the West Indies in 1986? Yup, the West Indies thumped England 5-0 ... TWICE. Strong New Zealand? Yeah, at home but NZ were god awful away from home. Hell, we even beat them at home in 87/88. Same with Pakistan and India. So besides touring NZ, Pakistan and India (yes, the West Indies won in all 3 countries) what other opposition did they have for over half of Viv's career?
Farmerj
Guest
Ive always said that Sir Viv is on another level from Tendulker, Kallis, Ponting etc. Another point to remember is that when he played, every country had a great fast bowler. Imram Kahn, Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee, Bob Willis, Ian Botham and all the australian quicks. There were no easy runs. Can you imagine how brave a batsman would look now if he came out at 3 wearing a cap instead of a helmet?
Brendon
Guest
Richards best arena was ODI cricket. His s/r of 90.2 is very good even today's standards. In the 80's it was unbelievable as was his average of 47. His s/r and average are better than Ponting and Tendulkar. Richards' test career definitely declined in the latter years but was still consistent. While Richards quite often didn't score a lot of centuries when he did the dominance and control with which he scored them enabled the West Indies to take control of matches but in later years he failed to convert half centuries into centuries. 24 centuries and 45 half centuries.