All the followers of cricket over the globe are pretty much acquainted to the name 'VIVIAN RICHARDS' and in case one doesn't, we are here to take you through his journey.
Some folks will say "Oh, Winning ain’t all! But I know it is all. At the end of the day no one looks at the loser. So that is why we play to win.” – Vivian Richards
What Ricky Ponting was to 2000's kids was Sir Vivian Richards to 1970's kids, he was a man of his own.
What separates Sir Vivian Richards from the other batsman?
HIS PLAYING STYLE
He was not someone to hold back when team was under pressure but instead he would start putting the pressure back to the opposition. He was a player who would smash a bowler over his head for a maximum after the very next ball of getting beaten on an outside edge.
VIV Richards once said - "These fellas these days want to overcomplicate this thing which is batting. Come forward, come at the face of the man who challenges you, show him who's boss. Be the boss, because if you don't think you are, no one else will."
Relatively Unknown Facts:
Sir Vivian Richards made his ODI debut in the Prudential World Cup in 1975, which was the first ever world cup in history of men's cricket. He played 5 games in the competition including semis and finals but all he could score In that tournament was 38 runs in 4 innings.
Richards again got a chance to show his worth when West Indies were in Australia for a 5 match Test series, where they planned to play a one-off ODI between second and third test. Richards scored 74 in 87 balls, a nerve settling innings after a possible worst start to the career but this wasn't the arrival of The Great Vivian Richards that we know.
West indies toured England for 3 match ODI series in August 1976 , West indies got a target of 203 to chase in 55 overs but they lost their first wicket for just 3 runs on board and in walks a squash-buckling Vivian Richards whilst chewing a bubble gum with his black hat on, he smashed England all over the park as he scored 119*( 133) at a SR of 89.47 and killed the game with 84 balls to spare. The world wasn't used to this kind of batting approach but Vivian showed how's its done. What followed up next was a 96-ball 97 in the 2nd one day of the series from Vivian's bat. This is when he truly announced his arrival to the world.
Was he the greatest ODI batsman?
Yes, sir Vivian Richards is arguably the greatest ODI batsman of all time. Sir Vivian scored 6721 runs from the 187 matches he played. Now again a question ponders in one's mind, that how can a player who played under 200 games and scored just a tad over 6500 runs be termed as the greatest or can even be included in list of all time greats.
Now let's look at some stats which can give us a fair idea about how Sir Vivian Richards faired as ODI batter.
Sir Vivian Richards scored 6721 ODI runs at an average of 47.00 and strike rate of 90.20. Yes, you read it right. He used to smash the bowlers at such a strike rate in the era where other batters used to play at 60-70 strike rate at best.
Sir Vivian scored 11 ODI centuries
1) All came outside west indies.
2) West indies never lost a game when he scored a century.
3) All of those came at a strike rate of 80 or above.
Runs / Average / Strike Rate / 100s against oppositions
1) 2187 Runs / 50.86 / 84.63 SR / 3 centuries against Australia
2) 1619 Runs / 57.82 / 91.26 SR / 3 centuries against England
3) 997 Runs / 47.47 / 99.50 SR / 3 centuries against India
4) 1079 Runs / 30.82 / 92.22 SR / 0 century against Pakistan
5) 444 Runs / 55.50 / 98.01 SR / 1 century against Sri Lanka
6) 379 runs / 54.14 / 83.29 SR / 1 century against New Zealand
He had an average of almost 50+ along with 90+ strike rate against all the opposition he played. He dominated the world in his own style, even in today's T20 era players find it difficult to play at a strike rate of 90 and there Viv Richards used to score at such rate in 1970's and 1980's, for the one's like us who never witnessed his game live can only imagine how good he was.
Numbers in winnings cause
He scored 5129 runs in winning cause which comprises 76 % of his total career runs. He scored these runs with an average of 57 and a strike rate of 93. These numbers are enough to prove his legacy.
Best ODI Innings
If we talk about his best inning, it has to be the 189* which came against the founders of the game at the Manchester. He came in to bat when the score was 11/2. The wickets kept tumbling at one end as the visitors found themselves reeling at 166/9. Vivian kept playing his shots from one end and took West Indies to the total of 272/9 in 55 overs. He scored an unbeaten 189 from 170 balls at a strike rate of 111.17. He scored 69.48% of his team's runs in this game which is still the highest in a completed ODI innings. This innings is rated as the best ODI innings of all time by many experts.
In 1979's Prudential World Cup final, West indies were to play against Australia. West Indies were batting first and lost their first wicket at the score of 22 and then came sir Vivian Richards who smashed 138* off 157 balls with 11 fours and 3 sixes. He took the Aussies by storm and shifted the game in the favour of West Indies. He never let the pressure of final get the better of him. He kept taking his chances and took West Indies to the total of 286 at the end of the innings. He won the Man of the Match for his herculean effort and West Indies won their 2nd consecutive World Cup title. He played 4 world cups for west indies, in which he played 23 games and scored 1013 runs at an average of 63.31(which is still the 2nd best average for anyone scoring over 1000 runs in World Cup history). He smashed thess runs at a strike rate of 85.05.
Vivian - The Test batsman
Matches : 121
Innings : 182
Runs : 8540
Average : 50.23
100's - 24
50's - 45
He was as good a Test batsman as he was in one day internationals. For him it wasn't about the format, he was born only to smash bowlers regardless of format and situation. The 23 year old kid from Antigua made his Test debut against India at Bengaluru but managed to score just 7 runs combined in the 2 innings. He then got a chance to bat at number 5 in the 2nd test of the series where he announced his arrival to the world by smashing an unbeaten 192 with 20 fours and 6 maximums. He was a man of his own, who dared to go for big hits even after having got two low scores to show against his name but he was made for this, he was born to dominate.
Runs / Average / 100s against oppositions
1) 2266 Runs / 44.43 / 5 centuries against Australia
2) 2869 Runs / 62.36 / 8 centuries against England
3) 1927 Runs / 50.71 / 8 centuries against India
4) 1091 Runs / 41.96 / 2 centuries against Pakistan
6) 387 runs / 43.00 / 1 century against New Zealand
If we look at the overall record of players since his debut till retirement, there were 8 players who scored 10,000+ runs in that period but Sir Vivian Richards was the only one to smash those runs (14,491) with an average of almost 50 (49.62). He also scored 35 centuries in his journey which was most by anyone given the period. Out of his 35 international centuries, only 2 were recorded in a losing cause. His game plan was simple, if he remains on crease then runs would come and he was there to create impact not to simply survive for long as he believed in the philosophy of 'do before you die'. Even in Test cricket, he used to smash bowlers at 90/100 SR with many of his centuries coming at a strike rate of 70 or more in Test cricket. Sir Viv Richards is still the fastest to reach 10,000 international runs as he did it in 206 innings. He's the only player to score over 1000 runs in a single tour. He achieved this feat against England in 1976 when he smashed 216 runs in the 3-match odi series along with 829 runs in 7 Test innings with 4 centuries thereby scoring 1045 runs on this tour in just 10 innings.
Once he came to bat at number 3 in a game where west indies had to set a target for England to chase in the 4th Innings of a test match. Sir Vivian walked in chewing the gum as usual and smashed a 58 ball 110* to set a target of 410 for England. In the process, he became the first ever player to smash a Test century at a strike rate in excess of 150. He holds the record of best strike rate in a Test inning where the batsman scored runs in excess of 100. His strike rate in this game was 189.65. He was a kind of player who used to love challenges and had he been born in today's T20 era, he surely would have clicked somewhere in the range of 120 and 130's in ODIs.
Viv's Swag
Chris Cowdery once said - "I was very proud to be appointed as England captain. I went for the toss wearing my whites and England blazer. Viv Richards came out wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt, surfing shorts and flip-flops. As a team captain, when I was reading team sheet to know who was the opposition captain. I got no further than four names when when Richards said 'PLAY WHO YOU WANT, MAN AIN'T GONNA MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE'. Such was his level of confidence."
