Seventy years ago today, a swaggering, gum-chewing, helmetless terror to bowlers everywhere was born. Has any other batter inspired as much fear as Viv Richards in his pomp? Has any other player generated as much lore as him? Everyone has a Richards story, some real, some apocryphal, always interesting. Has there ever been a cooler cricketer?
Tony Greig's infamous "grovel" comment set fire to West Indies' 1976 tour of England, and kicked off Richards' golden summer, which produced scores of 232, 63, 4, 135, 66, 38 and 291 in the four Tests he played in the series. He had already gone past Bob Simpson's record of 1381 runs for the year and he wasn't done yet: he finished with 1710, a record that stood for 30 years.
Before he was the Greatest Batter, Richards was already known as a gun fielder. The first instance of five run-outs in an innings in ODIs came in the 1975 World Cup final. Twenty-three-year-old Richards was responsible for sending back three Australians in this fashion - Alan Turner, and Ian and Greg Chappell.
The 1979 final is remembered for many things - Collis King's 86 from 66 balls, Joel Garner's five-for - but nothing put West Indies' stamp on the win quite like Richards' imperious last-ball flick for a six off Mike Hendrick, a shot he calls his invention.
West Indies' tour of Australia in 1979-80 was notable as much for the debut of the fearsome foursome of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft, as for Richards' 386 runs in four innings, at an average of 96.50.
In the first Texaco Trophy match against England in 1984, Richards single-handedly rescued West Indies, who were floundering at 166 for 9, smashing 189 not out off 170 balls - still widely regarded as the greatest ODI innings ever played.
In 1979, Richards, along with Joel Garner and Ian Botham, helped Somerset to their first silverware, in the Gillette Cup, but his relationship with the club would end acrimoniously. When Somerset announced the sacking of Richards and Garner in 1986 after a bad season, Botham, Richards' first room-mate at the club, refused a contract renewal as well.
Recommended Read
Richards walking out to bat was almost as much of an event as his innings - the rolling shoulders, the furious working of gum. Here spectators gather in Rishton, Lancashire, in 1987 to watch him make his entrance like a Roman emperor going on a crusade, as Mark Nicholas wrote.
Richards added insult to injury in a disastrous tour of the West Indies for England in 1986, after the visitors were reeling 0-4 down in the series. In the final Test, he scored a fifty in 35 balls, then fifty more in just 21, racing to the fastest Test century at the time. Best mate Ian Botham took the brunt of the punishment, finishing with 0 for 78.
Was there a better player of the flick? Light of feet, still of head, front leg moving across the stumps, hands moving in the opposite direction to effortlessly send the ball leg side, beyond the reach of any fielder - it was balletic perfection.
Richards finished his career with 121 Tests - 50 as captain without a single series loss - for West Indies. He would end with 2 and 60 in his final game, West Indies drawing the series with England in 1991.
