A
batsman who many modern observers rate second to Bradman is Viv Richards. Sir
Vivian was indeed king, monarch of all he surveyed in the sheer dominance of
his strokeplay. He was mesmerised by Chandrasekhar on debut at Bangalore in 1974-75, and overshadowed by
another first-timer Gordon Greenidge who nearly got a hundred in each innings.
Richards set the record right in the very next Test.
I
was fortunate to see that knock of his at the Ferozshah Kotla. At that time we
knew nothing about the awesome strokeplay that he was capable of, but his power
was certainly in evidence. One shot that has remained in my memory was the one
he played while batting at the pavilion end. He hit one of the spinners
straight and high, up above the big advertisement hoarding perched atop the
stands, landing probably in the centre of the adjoining Ambedkar Football
Stadium. I have never seen a cricket ball sailing that high ever again. Brijesh
Patel, fielding at extra-cover, rolled his fingers around his eyes as though
spotting the little spheroid with a pair of binoculars. It was a hit nobody
ever forgets.
The
other thing that I noticed was his dead-bat defence. Time and again during that
long innings he would drop deliveries from the spinners Venkataraghavan,
Prasanna and Bedi right under his eyes. He would then either bend down and pick
up the ball, or tap it with his bat, passing it to the forward short-leg
fielder Solkar. Whenever I hear people talk about Richards’ tremendous
strokeplay, and how they felt he was vulnerable early in his innings because he
whipped balls from outside his off-stump to the on-side, I always think back to
that impregnable defence. Of course he was a blaster, but he was also a master
for, like all the great players, he had a very good defence. People,
particularly English ‘experts’, mocked at Bradman as well early in his career.
Look what he did to them.
It
was indeed a delight to see Richards bring up his first Test century and go on
the rampage towards the latter stages, returning unconquered with 192. It was
the beginning of the Richards saga. He was soon to become the best West Indies batsman and rule the world of cricket until
he called it a day 16 years later.
When
the just-appointed England
captain Tony Greig made a stupid statement before the 1976 series that he would
make the West Indies “grovel”, Richards took
it as a personal affront. He hammered the English bowling like no one else had
done since Bradman in 1930. He slammed 232 at Trent Bridge,
135 at Old Trafford and 291, his highest Test score, at the Oval, aggregating
829 runs at an average of 118.42 in four Tests. Later Australia’s Mark Taylor got 10 more runs in England in
1989. Nobody has scored so many for the West Indies
in a Test series. That year he hit up 1710 runs (in just the first eight
months) at an average of 90 in 11 Tests with 7 hundreds. No one had scored as
many runs in a year. The opposition: the great pace bowlers of Australia, Lillee and Thomson at their height,
among others; the celebrated Indian spinners; and the pace and swing in England. The
king had been crowned. It took another batsman, Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan,
three decades to score more runs in a calendar year, 1788 with 9 hundreds, also
in 11 Tests.
A
decade later in 1985-86, Richards blasted the fastest recorded hundred in terms
of balls. He brought up his century in 56 deliveries before delighted home fans
at St. John’s, Antigua, against England.
Richards
was the first batsman to dominate in Tests as well as One-day Internationals.
If his electrifying fielding turned the World Cup final versus Australia in
1975, four years later his tremendous 139-run fifth-wicket stand with Collis
King turned the second World Cup final. Richards scored 138 to raise a
match-winning total. In 1984, also against England, he smashed the then
highest-ever One-day International score of 189 not out. Michael Holding was a
virtual bystander in an unbroken last-wicket partnership of 106. In 1987 he
surpassed Kapil Dev’s World Cup record innings by crashing 181 off the Sri
Lankan bowling at Karachi.
He
took over the captaincy of the West Indies after Clive Lloyd retired in 1985
and under him the West Indies continued to
rule world cricket in both its forms. They, however, could not reclaim the
World Cup after the shocking defeat at the hands of India in 1983.
When
he called it a day, Richards had surpassed Sobers’ highest Test aggregate for
the West Indies, finishing with 8540 runs at
an average of 50.23 with 24 hundreds. A brilliant fielder anywhere, he also
overtook Sobers in terms of catches, clutching 122 of his own. Add to this 6721
runs in One-day Internationals with an outstanding average of 47, and a strike
rate of 90.20, the first to aggregate 1000 runs in the World Cup, and we have
inarguably the best batsman in both forms of the game put together until Sachin
Tendulkar took over the mantle.
Statistics,
though, scarcely tell the tale of one of the most self-assured cricketers ever.
Helmets came into the game early in Richards’ career but he shunned them even
when confronted with the fastest of bowlers. He would walk out to the crease
proudly wearing his maroon West Indies cap,
head tilted at a jaunty angle, chewing gum, as if strolling in a park looking
at the birds on the trees. He could have been a character straight out of wild-west
movies, aware of the danger but playing it cool, mind ever alert for a swift
draw of his pistol. And, man, did he shoot them down, his powerful frame
steering that heavy bat with great speed.
His
haughty stance itself would put the jitters in the hearts of all but the most
strong-hearted of bowlers. And then he would stun them by firing a bullet from
outside the off-stump, screaming to the mid-wicket boundary before the startled
fielders could even react. Yes, it was like a shot from a gun, not a stroke off
a bat.
Richards
made stroke-making look so natural, as if it were the easiest thing in the
world. He would spot the ball early and then either take a big stride forward
or rock back, or even step away to leg and whack the ball away. His stunning
drives and pulls would leave the bowlers looking on in despair. Richards made a
virtue of backing away to leg and hitting inside-out through the line. The
desperation of the bowlers and fielding captains can then be imagined. To a
ball pitched on or outside the off-stump, Richards could cream it across the
line to the on-side; and to the delivery on or outside the leg-stump, he might
loft it through the line on the off-side. If he chose to, he would just as well
slam it in orthodox fashion. That is why captains were confused as to the field
to employ, and the bowlers confounded regarding the line to bowl. That is also
the reason why he scored so rapidly.
They said he was vulnerable early because he was not copybook.
That is only an illusion thrown up by mere theorists. Which batsman is not vulnerable
early in his innings? If he were that vulnerable, he would have been sorted out
early in his career by the world’s best bowlers. Instead he sorted out the
greatest bowlers through his long career. Vivian Richards was an original, just
as Bradman was. That is why armchair critics picked holes in their techniques
as if there were a law as to how one should bat. They would do well to remember
that Bradman and Richards were a law unto themselves. Just look at the
scorecards, and the outstanding results their teams achieved.
(Author Indra
Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).
Don’s Century
Published in India by Sporting Links
ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0
Fully illustrated
Paperback French Fold 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
Weight 480 grams
188 pages
Available
on Amazon at an attractive price:
https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859
Indra
Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1
