[Article] The Big Hitters: Viv Richards
Syed Mohammad Ali
The Big Hitters
by
Brian Bearshaw
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An Excerpt:
Viv Richards
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When Jack Simmons was preparing his autobiography he recalled facing
Viv Richards in a match at Bath. Lancashire had worked out a plan to
contain him, but Richards had plans of his own and one shot, branded
on Simmons's brain, was a huge straight drive which hit a civic
building at the end of the ground and bounced back to roll within
three or four yards of Simmons's bowling mark.
Richards's hitting does not have the beefy belligerence about it that
marks an Ian Botham innings. He has probably hit farther than his
Somerset friend, but there is more a feeling of pureness about his
hitting, the shot is so finely timed, he is into position almost
before the ball is released. He is perhaps one of the sweetest hitters
the game has known. Yet there can be a fury about Richards's game for
he is a mood player and if he decides to dominate a bowler then watch
out, the results will be worth remembering.
There are hundreds of instances of balls landing in the River Tone at
the Taunton ground. It is said that Arthur Wellard used to love to
hear the plop of the ball as it hit the water. He could clear the
river, too, as did Richards in 1980 when he hit a six off Nigel Briers
during a John Player League game with Leicestershire. He has cleared
quite a few surrounding walls of other grounds as well, has hit 34
runs in one over, 34 off seven balls from one bowler and in 1977 hit
73 sixes in all matches.
It is always interesting to go back to the start of a player's career,
for the first mention in the newspapers. The first notice of Richards
in England came with the news towards the end of 1973 that
"V.A. Richards from Antigua, has signed a two-year contract with
Somerset". The Isaac part of his name was soon attached and Richards
quickly made a mark by winning the Benson and Hedges gold award in his
first game for Somerset for an innings of 81 not out against Glamorgan
at Swansea. Simmons also remembered Richards's championship debut, at
Taunton early in May, a game which also saw Ian Botham playing his
opening first-class match. "Viv came in, smacked four fours in one or
two overs and we all looked on him as something of a slogger," said
Simmons. "Till we analysed it later and realised they weren't slogging
cross-bat shots, but genuine ones. Maybe he wanted to impress, not
only his teammates but the Lancashire side who were then one of the
top teams in the country."
Richards's first championship century came in his third game, against
Gloucestershire at Bristol, his second arrived three games later, a
beauty against Yorkshire at Bath which included four sixes. He hit
another century in the John Player League including 24 runs in an over
and at the end of his first season, in which he was the only Somerset
player to top 1,000 runs in the championship, only his captain, Brian
Close, had hit more sixes. Richards was twenty-two at the time and his
experience at Somerset helped him into the West Indies squad for the
winter tour of India and Pakistan.
Another newcomer on that tour was Gordon Greenidge, a
twenty-three-year-old opening batsman from Barbados and together, he
and Richards, who were to form an important part of the developing new
West Indies team, made their Test debuts against India at
Bangalore. Greenidge immediately exploded into life with a second
innings century after scoring 93 in the first. Richards, sadly, scored
four and three. He held his place for the second Test in Delhi and
there, with the entire Antiguan nation staying up all night to listen
to the radio report of the match, he scored 192 not out.
Richards had arrived and 1976 was to see the flower in full bloom with
a remarkable total of 1,710 runs in Test matches including 135 at Old
Trafford, 232 at Trent Bridge, 291 at the Oval, 101 at Adelaide, 142
at Bridgetown, 130 and 177 at Port of Spain. During an innings of 175
against Western Australia at Perth he hit six sixes, a match which
also included a century in 78 minutes by his captain, Clive
Lloyd. Just before that he had played against Tasmania at Hobart,
another game remembered by Simmons, the Tasmanian captain, who tossed
one ball up to Richards after he had reached his century. He hoped the
tiring Richards would attempt to slog from the crease and hit straight
in the air. He does not remember seeing that ball again after it flew
over the stand and the dressing rooms and on to the river.
It was at the beginning of the English summer of 1976 that England
captain Tony Greig made his unfortunate remark about making the West
Indies grovel. Richards was annoyed and in the first Test scored 36
runs in the first 20 minutes with two hooks and a straight drive off
John Snow and a six off Derek Underwood as he swaggered his way to 232
with four sixes. When he had finished with England that marvellous
summer he averaged 118 in four Tests he flew off to Queensland and,
the day after arriving, scored 104 in 116 minutes, and broke two bats
in the process.
Richards also damaged bats in other ways. In 1978 when Somerset lost
the chance of two trophies the Gillette Cup and the John Player League
on successive days at the end of the season, he was so disappointed
with his own performance in the second game, against Essex at Taunton,
that he smashed his bat to pieces in the dressing room. The following
year, after being given out lbw in a championship match against
Lancashire at Old Trafford, he returned to the dressing room in
steaming anger. He threw his bat down, it bounced and took off like a
Boeing to smash the window and startle the members sitting beneath. In
1983, after India had beaten West Indies at Lord's to win the World
Cup, the teams met again in a Test series in India. Richards was given
out Ibw to Kapil Dev and a Delhi sports magazine reported: "There was
no sign of dissent on the field, but Richards gave way to his real
feelings in the dressing room. The cups and saucers took a knock from
the jumbo bat flung in anger."
Richards had a great year for Somerset in 1977 when he averaged 86 an
innings and 50 an hour with three double centuries and four singles
and a host of sixes including five at Weston-super-Mare against
Surrey. He hit 73 sixes in all matches, 44 in first-class games, a
figure which had been bettered by only four players in history. He
scored a century before lunch against Lancashire at Southport when he
bombarded the houses with nine sixes in an innings of 189. He reached
his 50,100 and 150 with sixes, got his runs out of 308, and still
finished up on the losing side. David Graveney, the Gloucestershire
left-arm spinner, was hit for 34 in an over in a John Player match at
Taunton and in another Sunday game Derbyshire were hit for 104.
Richards has regularly shown himself a man for an occasion and one of
the best examples came in the 1979 World Cup final against England at
Lord's when he and Collis King shared in a stand of 139 in 21
overs. Richards himself scored 138 not out with three sixes and some
breathtaking shots all of his own making. When the West Indies came to
England again in 1980, Richards scored just one century, at Lord's,
but made a lasting impression on Chris Clifford, a Warwickshire off
break bowler, who was hit for 4-6-6-4-4-6-4 in seven consecutive balls
in the game at Edgbaston. Graham Dilley, the Kent fast bowler, was
also on the receiving end during the 1980-81 Test series in West
Indies, being hit out of the ground at Antigua where Richards duly
scored a century in the first Test staged in his home country and over
the stand at Barbados.
The innings Richards himself rated highest came at Old Trafford in
1984 when the West Indies tour of England was launched with the first
of three Texaco Trophy matches, 55 overs a side. Richards had played
only two innings up to then, scoring 12 against Worcestershire and 170
in 162 minutes against Glamorgan, with three of his five sixes coming
in one over against opening bowler Steve Barwick. The weather at Old
Trafford on 31st May was beautiful, the ground was packed, the setting
perfect for one of the most commanding innings ever played in one-day
cricket. West Indies had started badly. Ian Botham ran out Desmond
Haynes in his first over and had Gordon Greenidge caught at the wicket
in his second. Bob Willis held a return catch from Richie Richardson
and off-spinner Geoff Miller removed Larry Gomes, Clive Lloyd and Jeff
Dujon, numbers five, six and seven, without too much trouble. Malcolm
Marshall was run out by the wicketkeeper and a jubilant England left
for lunch with West Indies 114 for seven and only one of the first
eight batsmen having got into double figures. That, of course, was
Richards, who had reached 50 out of 83 for four and was now 73. Eldine
Baptiste was with him, only Joel Garner and Michael Holding were left
to provide support. Yet from that Richards conjured an innings of 189,
full of adventurous, ambitious shots as he dominated the remaining
overs. Baptiste helped put on 59 runs for the eighth wicket but
Garner went quickly, leaving Holding and Richards, the last pair,
together at 166. England, we thought, could have them all out for 180
.... well, 190 if Holding's luck held. Yet in just under 15 overs, 106
runs were added for the last wicket, of which Richards hit 93. There
were five sixes in his innings, one of them a straight drive which
left the ground. West Indies totalled 272 for nine, with Richards 189
not out, and victory was duly achieved by 104 runs. Richards scored
only three in the second match, at Trent Bridge, but hit 84 not out in
the third at Lord's, with four sixes, three of them off Bob Willis.
There was more to come in 1985 when he hit nine centuries for Somerset
and topped the English batting averages. He hit ten sixes in his 186
against Hampshire at Taunton in May including a special over extra
cover, and eight against Warwickshire at Taunton where he hit his
first triple century on the first day of June. An innings of 135
against Middlesex at Lord's included four sixes, while five more came
against Lancashire at Old Trafford including a rather fierce attack
against a fellow West Indian, Patrick Patterson, who was eager to make
an impression. When Patterson tried to bounce Richards the ball flew
over square leg and two overs brought 33 runs. Simmons, too, had to
wait a couple of times while the ball was recovered from among the
seats and then also had the misfortune to be set about by Ian Botham
who hit him for three more sixes. That was Monday. On Thursday, down
the road at Derby, Richards hit two sixes in a 109-minute century and
on Saturday, back at home at Taunton, made it three in a week with 112
against Sussex (plus 66 not out in the John Player League on Sunday).
Richards hit 49 first-class sixes in 1985, which looks almost trifling
alongside Ian Botham's 80, yet carried him alongside John Edrich with
only Arthur Wellard and Botham having scored more in a season. He also
hit 231 fours which gave him 1,218 runs in sixes and fours, an
astonishing proportion out of his total of 1,836 in the summer.
And to think there is still more to come and delight us from this
thirty-four year-old master.
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Syed
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© «Syed M. Ali»