Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards
Ravi Speaks:
Hi everyone!
Yet again, I am writing about my childhood hero in sports. I was so crazy about him that I have hardly missed any game at the international level -where he had played representing West Indies. I was his fan for certain unique things. You may get surprised what are those unique ones. Like his style of walking on the ground. He had an elan look. His majestic body movements reflected his leadership qualities. Some matches still are the real million-dollar feats to be cherished. Hardly anyone could come even near his style and technique till now-although we are proud to have heroes like Kohli and Tendulkar despite that, they too had no such unique depiction in their personalities other than the techniques and numbers in the ledger as per me -where I know many of you would like to differ with me on my thoughts. Following are some of his traits and feats discussed-I am sure you would also cherish them as much as I still enjoy them while jotting them down for you.
Sir Vivian Richards-The Master Blaster.
The Master Blaster- ‘Richards’
Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards
Today, while jotting down for the submission of an article related to sports, suddenly my thought goes to the greatest of all times in Cricket- “Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards”. He was known by the short name as Viv-Richards. In the eighties, the domination of the West Indies in international cricket was known to all. The reason for their strong team was the set of very strong players in the world which no other country had. These were namely Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Clive Lloyd, Gorden-Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, and above all-Viv-Richards. Their team was so strong that no other team, including Australia, could beat them.
His Popular Style
Richards was born on 7th March 1952 in Antigua and is 69 years old as of now. He made his debut in the tests on 22 November 1974 v India and played 151 matches till the end. He was a classy right-handed batsman. Whose style was unique? He never seemed to hit the ball very hard, but he had the classy wrist work with which he used to send the hits either through or over the boundaries. His last test was against England-: 8 August 1991 v England.
It was after this test in England at the Oval-three major players of the West Indies namely Malcolm Marshall, Richards and Jeff-Dujon walked out permanently for good from their team as well. After this, only the most powerful team in the world got very weak and could not thereafter recover fully as a team. His ODI debut was against Sri Lanka on 7 June 1975 v Sri Lanka-whereas he captained 14 ODI’s and dominated during that t 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 over 36,000 in first-class cricket. He was knighted for his contributions to cricket. Today Richards is an occasional cricket commentator and team mentor. Viv Richards inherited the West Indies captaincy from Clive Lloyd when New Zealand toured the Caribbean in 1985. Some greats had ended their careers and others were aging, but West Indies were still far too strong for the other Test-playing nations. Viv moved from number three to number.
His swashbuckling-181
Five in the order, but was still a major force. He made 105 against New Zealand at Bridgetown and his 110 not out against England in Antigua in 1986 was the fastest Test century ever seen. He made 109 not out in Delhi in 1987-88 to set up a five-wicket win over India and 123 against Pakistan at Port of Spain in 1988. He was not making the weight of runs he once did, but, like a good captain, would often weigh in with the important innings at a vital time. He made 80 at Trent Bridge in 1988 and 146 at Perth in 1988-89. There was 110 against India in Jamaica in 1989, but his best score against England in 1990 was his 70 at Bridgetown. By the time Australia came to West Indies in 1990, Viv had shaved his head: The “no-options” hairstyle he called it, but it brought him a new lease of life. In England, in 1991 he scored 73 at Headingley, 63 at Lord’s, 80 at Trent Bridge, and 60 at the Oval. He inspired his new county, Glamorgan, to their first trophy in 24 years. In the World Cup of 1987, Richards made 181 against Sri Lanka in Karachi and 67 against Pakistan on the same ground. He had hoped to bow out of international cricket in the World Cup of 1992, but inexplicably, the West Indies selectors would not give him a place under the captaincy of Richie Richardson.
His terrific shot on the leg-side.
I am a real fan of Richards-his walking style, his batting style, and his very casual stance in the field -were so attractive that people would love to see him for long periods in the field. Whenever his turn for the batting at number three used to come-I remember I was a college student. I used to stop all my other work and see his batting till the time he was there in the field. It was simply a master blaster acting in the center of the field and the opposition of the team seemed to have given in -to his hard-hitting right from the beginning itself.
Sir Vivian Richards is the only player to play in the Cricket world cup and the Football world cup. During the Football World Cup of 1974, Vivian played the qualifier matches for Antigua The national team as a debutant.
In 1987 against New Zealand, he became the first player to score a century and pick up four wickets in an ODI. Richards has the astonishing record of winning 31 Man-of-the-Match awards in just 187 games, which is one award every six games, easily the highest among all players to win over 25 awards.
When in the eighties he came to India, he was so popular that people from Bollywood got fascinated by his charm. An actress-Neena Gupta fell in love with him and they both have a daughter named Masaba-Gupta. Her relationship was a highly publicized relationship with former West Indian cricketer Vivian.
His wife, daughter-Masaba &Neena Gupta
Richards in the 1980s. Their daughter-Masaba-Gupta is a designer. Neena never married Richards and raised Masaba as a single mother in India. Later, Neena married an Indian and got settled with him, whereas Masaba too got married and even divorced later. Richards’ marriage was shown to live in Antigua-he was so much popular. He has two sons from his wife.
It was known those days that whenever Richards used to come for batting on the ground, his mother used to put off her radio and never wanted to hear that her son got out. He is so popular in his country that “The Sir Vivian Richards Stadium” is made in North Sound, Antigua in his honor. It was built for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
His family-two kids & wife.
The title ‘Sir’ is given to people who are knighted by the country’s government. He was knighted by Sir Garfield Sobers and not by the Queen of England. Many cricketers have been given a knighthood for their services to cricket.
Finally, I would like to highlight one thing the present heart-throbs like Virat Kohli too have Sir-Viv Richards as their Idol and whenever they are asked, they too confess that his agility and smoothness were a class of their own when he used to bat. It is only after so many decades that players like Richards come and leave their mark on the minds of their fans. I have not seen Sir Donald Bradman, who was known for his flawless batting and highest averages in the history of cricket but for sure I would say that those who have seen Richards in the field would never forget his style and elegance-may be many good players might come in, but the class is the mark which greater players leave behind and are remembered for times to come.
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