Today's Feature

December 3rd

Part 1: Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards KNH OBE OOC (born 7 March 1952) is an Antiguan retired cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Batting generally at number three in a dominant West Indies side, Richards is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. Richards helped win his team the 1979 Cricket World Cup.

Richards made his test debut in 1974 against India along with Gordon Greenidge. His best years were between 1976 and 1983 where he averaged a remarkable 66.51 with the bat in test cricket. In 1984 he suffered from pterygium and had eye surgery which affected his eyesight and reflexes. Despite this, he remained the best batsman in the world for the next four years, averaging 50. In the latter years of his career he would average 36.

Overall, Richards scored 8,540 runs in 121 Test matches at an average of 50.23 and retired as then West Indies leading run scorer overhauling the aggregate of Garfield Sobers.

He also scored 1281 runs at an average of over 55 in World Series Cricket, which is regarded as the highest and most difficult level of cricket ever played. As a captain, he won 27 of 50 Test matches and lost only 8. He also scored nearly 7,000 runs in One Day Internationals and more than 36,000 in first-class cricket.

He was knighted for his contributions to cricket in 1999. In 2000 he was voted one of Wisden's five Cricketers of the Century by a 100-member panel of experts and in 2002 the almanack judged that he had played the best One Day International innings of all time. In December 2002, he was chosen by Wisden as the greatest One Day International batsman who had played to that date and as the third greatest Test cricket batter. In 2009, Richards was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

In October 2013, Wisden selected the best test team across 150 years of test history and slotted Richards at No. 3. He was one of only two batsman of the post war era, alongside Sachin Tendulkar, to feature in that team.

Early Life

Richards was born to Malcolm and Gretel Richards in St. John's, Antigua, then part of the British Leeward Islands. He attended St. John's Boys Primary School and then Antigua Grammar Secondary School on a scholarship.

Richards discovered cricket at a young age. His brothers, Mervyn and Donald, both played the game, representing Antigua as amateurs, and they encouraged him to play. The young Richards initially practised with his father and Pat Evanson, a neighbour and family friend, who had captained the Antigua side.

Richards left school aged 18, and worked at D'Arcy's Bar and Restaurant in St. John's. He joined St. John's Cricket Club and the owner of the restaurant where he worked, D'Arcy Williams, provided him with new whites, gloves, pads and a bat. After a few seasons with St. John's C.C., he joined Rising Sun Cricket Club, where he remained until his departure to play abroad.

Richards was suspended from playing cricket for two years when he was a 17-year-old in 1969. Playing for Antigua against St Kitts, he got out for a golden duck much to the disgust of himself and the 6,000 supporters. Some supporters occupied the pitch and the game was held up for two hours. Richards was then given a second opportunity to bat in an effort to appease the almost rioting supporters. In his second bat in the innings he was again out for a duck. Richards said of the incident:

"I behaved very badly and I am not proud of it. But those in authority, who were advising me, didn't do themselves very proud either. I was told to restore peace I should go back out to bat. I did not want to and was not very happy about it. Had I been a more experienced player then I think I would have refused. But go back I did. I was made to look a fool for the convenience of the local cricket authorities.”

Cricket Career

Richards made his first-class debut in January 1972 when he was 19. He took part in a non-competition match, representing the Leeward Islands against the Windwards: Richards made 20 and 26. His competitive debut followed a few days later. Playing in the domestic West Indian Shell Shield for the Combined Leeward and Windward Islands in Kingston, Jamaica versus Jamaica, he scored 15 and 32, top-scoring in the second innings in a heavy defeat for his side.

By the time Richards was 22, he had played matches in the Antigua, Leeward Islands and Combined Islands tournaments. In 1973, his abilities were noticed by Len Creed, Vice Chairman at Somerset, who was in Antigua at the time as part of a West Country touring side. Surrey had earlier rejected both Richards and Andy Roberts at the Surrey Indoor Nets in late 1972. "They did not think we were good enough even to further our cricket education.”

Move to England, 1973–1974

Richards relocated to the United Kingdom, where Creed arranged for him to play league cricket for Lansdown C.C. in Bath. He made his Lansdown debut, as part of the second XI, at Weston-super-Mare on 26 April 1973. Richards was also employed by the club as assistant groundsman to head groundsman, John Heyward, to allow him some financial independence until his career was established.

After his debut he was promoted to the first team where he was introduced to the Lansdown all-rounder "Shandy" Perera from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Richards cites Perera as a major influence on his cricket development especially with regards to post-game analysis. He finished his first season at Lansdown top of the batting averages and shortly afterwards was offered a two-year contract with county side Somerset.

Richards then moved to Taunton in 1974 in preparation for his professional debut with Somerset CCC where he was assigned living accommodation by the club; a flat-share with two other county players: Ian Botham and Dennis Breakwell. On 27 April 1974 Richards made his Benson & Hedges Cup debut for Somerset against Glamorgan in Swansea; after the game Somerset skipper Brian Close arranged a player's ovation for Richards in recognition of his playing and contribution to the victory. Richards was awarded Man of the Match.

Test debut to international stardom, 1975–1984

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. The West Indies saw him as a strong opener and he kept his profile up in the early years of his promising career.

In 1975 Richards helped the West Indies to win the inaugural Cricket World Cup final, a feat he later described as the most memorable of his career. He starred in the field, running out Alan Turner, Ian Chappell and Greg Chappell. The West Indies were again able to win the following World Cup in 1979, thanks to a Richards century in the final at Lord's, and Richards believes that on both occasions, despite internal island divisions, the Caribbean came together.

He was until 2005 the only man to score a century and take 5 wickets in the same one-day international, against New Zealand at Dunedin in 1986–87. He rescued his side from a perilous position at Old Trafford in 1984 and, in partnership with Michael Holding, smashed 189 to win the game off his own bat.

1976 was perhaps Richards' finest year: he scored 1710 runs, at an astonishing average of 90.00, with seven centuries in 11 Tests. This achievement is all the more remarkable considering he missed the second Test at Lord's after contracting glandular fever; yet he returned to score his career-best 291 at the Oval later in the summer. This tally stood as the world record for most Test runs by a batsman in a single calendar year for 30 years until broken by Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan on 30 November 2006.

Richards had a long and successful career in the County Championship in England, playing for many years for Somerset. In 1983, the team won the NatWest Trophy, with Richards and close friend Ian Botham having a playful slugging match in the final few overs. Richards also starred in Somerset's victores in the finals of the 1979 Gillette Cup, and the 1981 Benson & Hedges Cup, making a century in both finals, also helping Somerset to win the 1979 John Player League and the 1982 Benson & Hedges Cup.

Richards refused a "blank-cheque" offer to play for a rebel West Indies squad in South Africa during the Apartheid era in 1983, and again in 1984.

West Indies captain, 1984–1991

Richards captained the West Indies in 50 Test matches from 1984 to 1991. He is the only West Indies captain never to lose a Test series, and it is said that his fierce will to win contributed to this achievement. His captaincy was, however, not without controversy: one incident was his aggressive, "finger-flapping" appeal leading to the incorrect dismissal of England batsman Rob Bailey in the Barbados Test in 1990, which was described by Wisden as "at best undignified and unsightly. At worst, it was calculated gamesmanship”.

During a match against Zimbabwe during the 1983 Cricket World Cup, Richards returned to the crease after a stoppage for bad light and accidentally took strike at the wrong end, which remains a very rare occurrence.

Richards made his highest first-class score, 322, for Somerset again Warwickshire in 1985.[41] However, despite his totemic presence at Somerset, over time his performances declined as he devoted most of his time to international cricket. The county finished bottom of the County Championship in 1985, and next to bottom in 1986.

New team captain Peter Roebuck became the centre of a major controversy when he was instrumental in the county's decision not to renew the contracts of Richards and his West Indies teammate Joel Garner for the 1987 season, whose runs and wickets had brought the county much success in the previous eight years. Somerset proposed to replace the pair with New Zealand batsman Martin Crowe. Consequently, Ian Botham refused a new contract with Somerset in protest at the way his friends Richards and Garner had been treated and promptly joined Worcestershire. After many years of bitterness over the event and the eventual removal of Roebuck from the club, Richards was eventually honoured with the naming of a set of entrance gates after him at the County Ground, Taunton.

After his sacking from Somerset, Richards spent the 1987 season in the Lancashire League playing as Rishton CC's professional, in preparation for the West Indies tour the following season.

In November 1988, while on tour of Australia with the West Indies, Richards became the first West Indies player to reach 100 first-class centuries by scoring 101 against New South Wales. Richards remains the only West Indies player to achieve this milestone, and among non-England qualified players only Don Bradman (117) scored more first-class centuries than Richards' 114.

Richards returned to county cricket for the 1990 season towards the end of his career to play for Glamorgan, helping them to win the AXA Sunday League in 1993.