I have seen sad faces of the bowlers bowling to him, have seen fielders letting the ball go past them in the fear of the injuries. Have seen bowlers not bowling him the bouncers at the fear of getting thrashed all over the park for the rest of the day after he settles down. This player was perhaps the most feared batsman of all times. A look at the records would give you a fair idea but what they won’t convey you is the *way* he carried out all that.
There are many myths about his batsman ship.What some bowler said to him & how he replied after a few balls. How to faced Lillee and Thomson pair without a helmet. The way he hit the ball out of the ground while hitting a cover drive (for God’s sake!). How he bet with Ian Botham on how many fours he is going to score, the worst is *how* he is going to score them beforehand! His ’sideways’ sixer on last ball of the 1979 world-cup final when he scored 134. His last wicket partnership of 113 with Holding that started when Viv was on 98 & he went off the ground with 189 not out with Holding 11 not out! His fastest century in the tests in England (just the day before when Javed Miandad scored 6 off Chetan Sharma of the last ball).
The stories about his lack of sportsman-spirit, of his bitter tongue, of his pride of being a West Indian, his remarks and outrage against any derogatory remarks of the media. His taking off the shirt in the dance bar & much more. All this contributed to overall Larger than life and a highly controversial personality. The episode when he was dropped along with Joel Garner from Somerset team that they had taken to victory along with Ian Botham. The way Botham stood with him and became his lifetime friend--or actually a brother with deep family ties and relationship. Botham even refused to play in SAF saying what would Viv think of him! Viv scored 180+ scores against mainstream nations when it was not fashionable to hit over the top & also the game was not that fast at all. Usual ’Viv Richards strokes’ got him such high scores.
This controversial sun sign Aquarian must have been a moon sign Scorpio (These two sings are teh most unpredictable and charismatic of them all, a combination of them is also found in Albert Einstein!).
He was a little suspect to quality spin bowling in early part of his career. He took pride in hitting the ball where he wanted. He pulled balls outside off-stump, he hit th eones pitched out side leg over the long-off & what not! He liked playing more on the leg side.
Viv always had a great respect for the opening bats. Thats why today (as I mentioned in my Sunil G review) has more respect for Sunil than Sachin. He always respected the way Greenidge & Haynes carried the crucial opening overs and opening part of the day when the cricket ball did many tricks. He did share a very good relationship with Indian players like Sunil, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Ravi & Kapil. He always respected Kapil Dev the way he took pride in playing for India and the way he competed no matter what the situation. I remember the one day when Richards/Hooper his maximum sixers (Richards 6 Sixers) Arshad Ayub taken to cleaners! Kapil came to ball & Richards/Hooper managed to get only single a ball. Kapil almost had Viv with a Yorker, Richards ran a single & patted Kapil & was laughing mischievously the way he survived the Yorker.
Viv was not very famous for his sportsmanship. He always wanted to win *anyhow*. He just hated loosing the game at any sake. As he mentioned ’It was disgusting to watch the winners (1983 World Cup) & see them from the background all happy and celebrating the win; I felt sick that day’
He chose to retire a little early as diminishing eye wouldn’t allow him to dominate the attack as he would have liked and also he didn’t want to use helmet. If Richards would have played for statistics I do not think any stats would have been left unbroken. He got out when he thought his team & he had enough of it to win. Many time he got out after massive onslaught just due to uninteresting bowling attack. He loved challenges & never shied away from any.
His greatest virtue was the way he played with confidence or rather arrogance when it mattered the most. He got 3 run-outs in the 1975 World-Cup final with direct hits! Even Sachin asked him how he prepared himself for the big games. As Richards put it: He always wanted to dominate when it was *the* time & everybody was watching. He wanted to hurt the opposition when it hurt the most. He wanted his revenge slow & long!
Coming to some drawbacks: As a captain he lost a few players and WI team didn’t dominate as much as it did under Clive Loyd. He didn’t lose a series while he was the captain but he had two tied series against India(Narendra Hirwani) & Pakistan (at home). He cried with sorrow after not able to win the last test against Pakistan as it would have given him the series win (They were very close at a moment).
His arrogance and superiority has kept him away from the role of the commentator, he comes in the box once in a while but he is not the kind of person to keep talking on some subject without acting on it! :) He might prefer to play again instead of just talking on it. I appreciate it and like Kapil he is best off of the commentary box. Sobers tried it and did it with amazing quality comments & accuracy but he was too an expert for the common folks & way out of league. I think people deserve Harsh Bhogale & Ravi Shastri & not say Imran Khan, Sobers, Viv Richards or Kapil Dev !! :-))
Honestly, *I* haven’t seen a better player(batsman) of cricket than Richards. One just can’t come close to this master-blaster. Sachin and Lara are always compared to Don Bradman but what everyone forgets is that they are NEVER compared with Sir Vivian Richards. Heck, even Don himself wouldn’t compare him to Viv maybe he knew who was the better player!’ ??
---I will add Viv’s best performances in the first comment later---
SALUTE TO THE BEST BATSMAN EVER PRODUCED!