Viv Richards

Richards was an extremely attacking right-hand batsman, a good fielder, an occasional spin bowler, and a successful captain. His impressive style of play, and relaxed but determined demeanour made him a great crowd favourite. The word "swagger" is frequently and aptly used to describe his batting style: an awe-inspiring figure, he often completely dominated opposing bowlers both physically and mentally. His strokeplay was utterly devastating; relying on his excellent eye for timing his shots, and his great physical strength and power to punish the bowlers severely. He was widely known for his habits of nonchalantly chewing gum while playing, and preferring to wear a cap rather than a cricket helmet even against the fastest bowlers such as Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, and Bob Willis, regardless of the personal danger.

Richards made his Test match debut for the West Indian cricket team in 1974 against India in Bangalore. He made an unbeaten 192 in the second Test of the same series in New Delhi.

In his Test career, he scored 8,540 runs in 121 Test matches at an average of 50.23 (including 24 centuries). Richards also scored 5 centuries in World Series Cricket between 1977-79. They are not recognised by the ICC as official test centuries, but the high standard of cricket played in this series means that they can arguably be ranked alongside his 24 test centuries . He won 27 of 50 matches as a Test captain, and lost only 8. He is also the scorer of the fastest ever Test century. His highest innings of 291 is sixth on the list West Indies' highest individual scores.

In 1976 Richards scored 1710 runs at 90.00 with seven centuries in 11 Tests, both records to this day. Rather surprisingly, in six ODIs he played that calendar year he managed only 112 runs at 28.00.

Apart from his exciting style of play, Richards is held in great esteem for his personal principles in refusing a "blank cheque" offer to play for a rebel West Indian squad in South Africa during the apartheid era in 1983, and again in 1984.

He was chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1977.

In 2000, Richards was named by a 100-member panel of experts one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. Richards received 25 votes, behind Sir Donald Bradman (100 votes), Sir Garfield Sobers (90 votes), Sir Jack Hobbs (30 votes) and Shane Warne (27 votes).

He also played soccer for the Antigua national team, appearing in qualifying matches for the 1974 World Cup.

Richards has a relationship with a renowned bollywood actress, Neena Gupta, with whom he also has a child.

He is also a user of Pot Tea, which he claims is to relieve his eye problems.

Viv Richards' career performance graph.

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See also

External link

• [Player Profile: ] from Cricinfo

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