Harsh Thakor
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Although Barry Richards played only 4 official tests and a series of unofficial tests in Kerry Packer WSC he is widely regarded as the greatest post-war opening batsmen of all and a batsmen in the class of Sachin Tendulkar,Viv Richards or Sunil Gavaskar.
To me the game is not only about pure statistics but about flair,artistry,technique and domination.In first class cricket it was not just his staggering statistics but the way he attained them.Arguably no batsmen was ever as clinically perfect complete and no batsmen tore apart oppostion with such flawless technique.Barry was a surgeon ,artists and bulldozer rolled into one blending phenonemenal power with perfect technical skill and the creativity of a painter.No batsmen after Bradman looked more like a perfect cricketing machine.
The fact that he averaged over 79 in the competitive era of WSC supertsets speaks for itself.In both his best innings of 101 not out and 207 he overshadowed the genius Viv Richards.Barry also when scoring 356,including 325 runs in a day took cricketing art and domination to it's most supreme zenith facing bowlers like Lillee.Never forget the great bowling he demolished in 1st class cricket.
To me Barry virtually defined batting more than nay batsmen in anew golden age of cricket giving batting anew dimension.Barry was technical correctness personified and an epitome of domination over an oponent.
Above all Don Bradman rated Bary as the best right-handed opening batsmen he ever saw ,ahead of even Hutton,Hobbs and Gavaskar.
In my book Barry would rank only behind Bradman,Tendulkar,Viv Richards Lara,Hobbs,Sobers and Hammond as a batsmen. The only other cricketers I would rank ahead of Barry were Grace,Warne,Imran,Barnes,Marshall,Murlitharan Kallis,Botham ,Lillee ,Wasim ,Mcgrath and Hadlee.It is a virtual photo seperating Hutton and Gavaskar with Barry which I cannot decide at this moment.Still Barry would rate above greats like Ponting,Weekes,Compton,Headley,Pollock,Chappel bothers,Miandad,Border,Sangakaara etc.I think the game of cricket is more about aesthetics than mere statistics and Barry could make as great an impact on proceedings on his day as any superstar.I have been influenced a lot with his batting in Packer WSC games,whee he overshadowed the great Viv Richards.
John Woodcock ranked Barry as his 15th best cricketer ahead of even Imran and Lillee which I do no agree with.David Gower also placed him above Lillee .Graham Gooch and Dickie Bird rate Barry the most perfect and best batsmen they ever saw .Martin Crowe and Richard Hadlee chose Barry to join Hobbs in the all-time test xi.I feel lot of selectors of all-time xi's unfailrly chose Greenidge instead of Bary to join Gavaskar,Hutton or Hobbs.
Courtesy Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan
Performance of top batsmen in World Series Cricket Batsman Team Matches Innings Runs 100 50 Average
Barry Richards World XI 5 8 554 2 2 79.14
Vivian Richards West Indies and World XI 14 25 1281 4 4 55.69
Greg Chappell Australia 14 26 1415 5 4 56.60
David Hookes Australia 12 22 769 1 7 38.45
Clive Lloyd West Indies and World XI 13 21 683 1 3 37.94
Gordon Greenidge West Indies and World XI 13 23 754 1 4 35.90
Ian Chappell Australia 14 27 893 1 5 35.72
WSC was the most difficult test for batsmen due to incredible line up of pace bowlers present then. Many batsmen failed to perform at the end of the series and only a few were able to counter the aggressive bowling consistently. While the performance of Roberts, Holding, Lillee and Imran was more or less expected considering their reputation, the showing of the South African all-rounder Mike Procter and Garth le Roux was highly impressive. Dennis Lillee picked up the most wickets for Australia and was ably supported by Max Walker and later Jeff Thomson.
ALAN MCGILVRAY
Alan McGilvray, in his very informative and knowledgeable book, "The Game Goes On" as told to Norman Tusker, published after his retirement, in a chapter titled "Bradman Revisited", compares several leading batsmen (except Hayden, who was yet to emerge on the cricketing scene and Sachin Tendulkar who had just begun his career) to the great Don.
He rates the South African Barry Richards, now a leading commentator, who is one of those covering the present Test series between the Sri Lankans and the Proteas, as the closest to Bradman.
"Nobody will ever touch Bradman. He was one apart. Yet, through a couple of generations of cricketers since Bradman left center stage, comparisons have repeatedly been made, or at least attempted. Perhaps it is because those who saw him long to see something like him again. Maybe it is just the eternal hope that ultimate excellence regenerates itself. Whatever the basis of it, another Bradman is a tag that has been given to more than one young hopeful in the forty years since Bradman ended his playing days".
Citing a couple of examples of the new Bradman tag, McGilvray speaks of Ian Craig who first made the New South Wales team at 16, scored a magnificent double-century against South Africa at 17, and found himself in an Australian team of extraordinary talent and experience when still three months short of his 18th birthday.
There was a natural romance of one so young in the Australian side, which, boasted Arthur Morris, Lindsay Hassett, who succeeded Bradman as captain, Keith Miller, Neil Harvey, Bill Johnston and Douglas Ring, to say nothing of young bloods like Richie Benaud and Colin McDonald.
However, Craig found the Bradman comparison hard to live with. He failed in England in 1953, did a little better there in 1956 and ended up as captain of Australia at age 22. An illness thwarted his career thereafter. But McGilvray felt that Craig would have done so much more had the world not lined him up as another Don Bradman.
O'Neil too, found the weight of Bradman stature within the cricketing community, and particularly the press, weighing upon him.
O'Neil made a spectacular impact on Sheffield Shield cricket in the 1950s, scoring 1,005 runs in the 1957-58 season when he was just a lad of 21. Most of his runs came with a great flourish and he had some glorious strokes, wonderful strength off the blackfoot, an attitude that demanded he get on with it. He had also had enormous crowd appeal. O'Neil scored plenty of runs for Australia for seven or eight years and captured all those qualities of daring and aggression so admired in the Australian nature. But, another Bradman? That was asking too much, says the veteran broadcaster.
"I have watched many great players down the years and there is only one ever considered to be in the Bradman mould. I have seen the best from those who pre-dated Bradman like the remarkable Charlie Macartney, to contemporaries Bill Woodfull and Bill Ponsford through a plethora of world-class batsmen of every nation who have graced the game in the half-century since. For sure, there have been plenty of masterful players. Charlie Macartney was one of them. They called him the Governor-General, for his bearing at the wicket, one of total command".
"Charlie Macartney perhaps had Bradman's competitiveness. On his day, he certainly had his aggression and when things were right, much of his technical excellence. But for all his strengths, he could never put them all together, match in and match out, as Bradman could. He was no Bradman".
"Similarly Woodfull and Ponsford offered their particular strengths. But, they were no comparison to Bradman".
McGilvray says of Barry Richards, "In all the times since, only a handful of players have built careers to be mentioned in the same breath as Bradman. I narrow the field to one. By the test of technique and attitude and precision and performance, the only man I would measure against the Don is the South African Barry Richards. And, all things considered, I would suggest it would be a pretty close thing.
"There was so much about Barry Richards and Don Bradman that was similar. The anticipation and the speed with which they got themselves into position to play a shot. The timing and the power of their strokes. The thoughtful, analytical way they went about working out the bowling.
The manner in which they worked to dominate, then devastate, the best of attacks. Richards, if anything, was a little stronger than Bradman with shots on the off-side.
Bradman undoubtedly was more forceful and more effective than Richards when he played to the on-side. On either count, both were gloriously effective. Their footwork was supreme. They conserved their energy, waiting for the ball to come on and dispatching it with superb timing rather than brute power. Yet, they would dance to smother a spinner; their speed in getting into position seemed to give them so much more time, compared even to the greatest of players down the years".
Richards who launched himself almost at the precise moment when South Africa were banned from Test cricket due to its apartheid policies, could play in only four tests from 1969-70, with an average of 72 and included two centuries against the Australians.
His 140 in the second test when he passed 100 in just 116 balls, and Graeme Pollock who hit a majestic 274, consigned Australia to the scrap heap, says McGilvray. Richards scored 79 centuries in first class cricket.
"This cricket would have given Richards the hard edge he needed, enough, perhaps, even to have challenged the redoubtable Bradman".
"I have always liked to use a particular innings of each player as a measuring stick of just how similar their talents were. These were innings in which each of them scored 300 runs in a day. Bradman's was scored at Leeds in 1930 in a Test against England when Bradman was a 22-year-old prodigy.
Richards' was scored at perth in 1970, in a sheffield shield match between South Australia and Western Australia. Bradman went in eight minutes after the start of play at the fall of Archie Jackson's wicket, finished the day on 309 not out and was out next morning for 334. Richard opened up, ended the day on 325 not out, and was eventually out for 356".
"Bradman took 375 minutes to hit his 334 and hit 46 boundaries. Richards hit his 356 in 372 minutes. He found the boundary rope 48 times, and hit a six as well. It takes batsmen of rare quality to play like that. Neither player managed a century in each session in topping the 300.
Bradman hit 105 before lunch, 115 in the session between lunch and tea, and 89 in the final period when weariness was catching up with him. Richards hit 79 in the first session, 137 in the next and 109 in the last".
Both Bradman and Richards made these blistering triple centuries against very strong bowling attacks.
McGilvray says that "some would put Vivian Richards, the man who had been widely labelled as the Black Bradman, into the same class of supreme players to be measured with the Don. Great player Richards has been, he is limited when he is put against the standards of Bradman and Barry Richards".
In a world xi of his time I would always back Barry instead of anyone to bat with Gavaskar and would prefer Barry to open the all-time world xi than any batsmen because of his great attacking prowess.
QUOTING MARTIN CHANDLER
I have never enjoyed seeing Lancashire bested, but the prospect of watching Barry Richards and Gordon Greenidge continuing their partnership carried the day and I decided to go with him. The pair lifted the score to 200 before Richards, having comfortably outscored the powerful Greenidge, took one liberty too many with “Flat Jack” Simmons and was out for a glorious 128. Try as I might to put that day in perspective however I can’t – it still seems like yesterday – and in forty years I have never seen a batsman as good as Richards. Once or twice Brian Lara has come close, and occasionally I thought Martin Crowe might touch the same heights, but I know in my heart of hearts that I will never see Richards’ like again.
Richards is the greatest of my time, if not by a distance then certainly without a doubt, but few seem to agree. “Am I out of step, or is everyone else?” is the sort of question we are supposed to ask ourselves as part of a catharsis when we have made mistakes, and I have been there with Barry Richards, but nothing ever changes my mind about him, and while I am not about to suggest he was a greater batsman than Sir Donald Bradman, nor necessarily even his equal, I cannot get the thought out of my head that, had he not been a victim of the circumstances that did blight his career, Richards might have earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath as “The Don”.
Clearly that is an opinion I need to justify but I am not alone in holding it. As his career came to a close Tony Greig considered Richards to be the finest batsman in the world and expressed the view that in different circumstances I am convinced he could have rewritten the record books – and rewritten them with a style and grace matched by precious few players in the history of the game. And if that gives a clue to the way Richards batted John Arlott’s words he butchers bowling, hitting with a savage power the more impressive for being veiled by the certainty of his timing, are as good a summary as I have read.
And so to return to the comparison with Bradman. It is not without relevance to quote the great man himself on the subject of Richards; You could never tire of watching him ….. it was a privilege to see him play. The Don also had no hesitation in declaring that Richards was the best right-handed opening batsman he had seen. Perhaps he did not want to make a comparison with the left-handed Arthur Morris, who was Richards’ opening partner in his dream eleven, but he clearly ranked him above Len Hutton and Sir Jack Hobbs. The Master was past his best by the time Bradman encountered him, but he saw the best of Hutton.
That Bradman had advantages that Richards did not must be the case. For half of Bradman’s career he could not be out lbw to a delivery that pitched outside the off stump. Richards always could, and indeed for most of his time a delivery that did not strike him in line either, although that is perhaps a minor point – Barry Richards was not in the habit of not playing a shot in those circumstances. On another legal issue Bradman had uncovered wickets to contend with, although so did Richards for part of his career, and he also played much more of his cricket on the soft English wickets of the 1970s rather than the rock hard Australian shirtfronts that Bradman enjoyed in the 1930s.
S.RAJESH IN CRICINFO
In the first of the three Supertests he played that season for WSC World XI, in Sydney, Richards got starts in both innings but couldn't convert them into huge scores, scoring 57 and 48. Then came a truly magnificent display in the second match, which justified all the hype. Opening the innings with his Hampshire team-mate Gordon Greenidge, Richards scored a wonderful 207, adding 234 for the opening wicket before Greenidge was forced to retire hurt. That brought the other great Richards, Viv, to the wicket, and for the next few hours the Australian bowlers didn't know what hit them. Viv was generally a more destructive batsman, but on this day Barry outshone him, scoring 93 in the next 90 minutes, even as Viv made only 41. When Barry finally fell, the scoreboard read 369 for 1 in 60 eight-ball overs.
In the next Supertest, Barry made a half-century in the first innings but fell for a duck in the second as WSC World XI, chasing 272 for victory, fell 41 runs short. He finished the three matches with an aggregate of 388 runs in five innings, second only to Viv's 502. (Click here for more details.)
In the next season there was another Richards special, this time in the final of the World Series Supertests: in a tense, low-scoring game, where neither team had scored more than 219, WSC World XI needed to score 224 in the fourth innings. Richards stamped his presence on the chase with an outstanding unbeaten 101; the next-highest score from one of his team-mates in either innings was 44. At 84 for 4 the Australians had a slight edge, but Richards took on Dennis Lillee and Gary Gilmour and ultimately led his team to a five-wicket win.
Overall Barry Richards played only five Supertests, but he clearly left his mark - in eight innings he scored two hundreds and two fifties and averaged almost 80, which was easily the highest. Since he wasn't from Australia or West Indies he didn't play as many matches as the others, but that's hardly his fault.
QOUTING MARK NICHOLAS
Mark Nicholas: Barry Richards – A Genius In Straight Lines
October 9th, 2014
One-time AOC guest editor Mark Nicholas explains what made the great South African batsman Barry Richards his favourite player.
To me, cricket’s greatest appeal is in the aesthetics, and particularly in straight lines – I’ve always preferred say, Tendulkar to Lara – which isn’t to say I don’t like Lara – just that I like the exactness of straight lines.
When I first saw Barry, what I loved was the time he had to play, however challenging the bowler. Jeff Thomson was the first truly fast bowler I saw bowl at Barry and Barry had time to play him. He played fantastically, scoring 90-odd at Southampton against the Australian tourists in 1975. I liked the exactness of his technique, both against speed and spin.
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And then what I loved most of all was that he could use that to his advantage with his great sense of adventure. So, even when he was hitting inside out over extra cover – which in those days people didn’t really do – or backing away and late cutting, he was still doing it from a perfect technical foundation.
It may be that your thing is the Kevin Pietersen flamingo shot or the Garry Sobers back-foot drive from a half-volley. But mine was Barry using his imagination and sense of adventure to provide something close to perfect both when defending and attacking.
So risqué could he be that when you went to watch him you spent your time fearing he’d get out. That added such a frisson to the moments. But the truth is, Barry set out to entertain. He brought joy to a lot of people, but through that determination to entertain he also brought frustration – particularly in his own team, who could see that he when he got out for 100, he should have got 150 or 200. Instead, often he’d just hit it up in the air, because he’d got bored with the challenge.
People say it’s impossible to judge him because he only played four Test matches. That is a perfectly fair argument, but equally history shows that every challenge put before him, he rose to. When he went to play in the Sheffield Shield, his record was sans pareil. When he played in World Series Cricket, he thrived – I’ll never forget the fighting innings that won the Super Test Final against the Australians – when they threw everything at him, he made an unbeaten hundred and saw the Rest of the World through. His double hundred at Gloucester Park in conjunction with the other great strokemaking Richards – Viv – was also very special. In England, when the tourists came, Barry made runs against them. I believe that Test cricket would have been the next challenge that he would have mastered.
Of all the great honours that have been bestowed upon him in words, the one that might mean the most was being selected in Donald Bradman’s all-time XI – that gave him a rubber stamp from someone whose opinions became almost as important as his own batting.
Barry combined everything that I wanted out of batting and could do it all as if it was a walk in the park
To me the game is not only about pure statistics but about flair,artistry,technique and domination.In first class cricket it was not just his staggering statistics but the way he attained them.Arguably no batsmen was ever as clinically perfect complete and no batsmen tore apart oppostion with such flawless technique.Barry was a surgeon ,artists and bulldozer rolled into one blending phenonemenal power with perfect technical skill and the creativity of a painter.No batsmen after Bradman looked more like a perfect cricketing machine.
The fact that he averaged over 79 in the competitive era of WSC supertsets speaks for itself.In both his best innings of 101 not out and 207 he overshadowed the genius Viv Richards.Barry also when scoring 356,including 325 runs in a day took cricketing art and domination to it's most supreme zenith facing bowlers like Lillee.Never forget the great bowling he demolished in 1st class cricket.
To me Barry virtually defined batting more than nay batsmen in anew golden age of cricket giving batting anew dimension.Barry was technical correctness personified and an epitome of domination over an oponent.
Above all Don Bradman rated Bary as the best right-handed opening batsmen he ever saw ,ahead of even Hutton,Hobbs and Gavaskar.
In my book Barry would rank only behind Bradman,Tendulkar,Viv Richards Lara,Hobbs,Sobers and Hammond as a batsmen. The only other cricketers I would rank ahead of Barry were Grace,Warne,Imran,Barnes,Marshall,Murlitharan Kallis,Botham ,Lillee ,Wasim ,Mcgrath and Hadlee.It is a virtual photo seperating Hutton and Gavaskar with Barry which I cannot decide at this moment.Still Barry would rate above greats like Ponting,Weekes,Compton,Headley,Pollock,Chappel bothers,Miandad,Border,Sangakaara etc.I think the game of cricket is more about aesthetics than mere statistics and Barry could make as great an impact on proceedings on his day as any superstar.I have been influenced a lot with his batting in Packer WSC games,whee he overshadowed the great Viv Richards.
John Woodcock ranked Barry as his 15th best cricketer ahead of even Imran and Lillee which I do no agree with.David Gower also placed him above Lillee .Graham Gooch and Dickie Bird rate Barry the most perfect and best batsmen they ever saw .Martin Crowe and Richard Hadlee chose Barry to join Hobbs in the all-time test xi.I feel lot of selectors of all-time xi's unfailrly chose Greenidge instead of Bary to join Gavaskar,Hutton or Hobbs.
Courtesy Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan
Performance of top batsmen in World Series Cricket Batsman Team Matches Innings Runs 100 50 Average
Barry Richards World XI 5 8 554 2 2 79.14
Vivian Richards West Indies and World XI 14 25 1281 4 4 55.69
Greg Chappell Australia 14 26 1415 5 4 56.60
David Hookes Australia 12 22 769 1 7 38.45
Clive Lloyd West Indies and World XI 13 21 683 1 3 37.94
Gordon Greenidge West Indies and World XI 13 23 754 1 4 35.90
Ian Chappell Australia 14 27 893 1 5 35.72
WSC was the most difficult test for batsmen due to incredible line up of pace bowlers present then. Many batsmen failed to perform at the end of the series and only a few were able to counter the aggressive bowling consistently. While the performance of Roberts, Holding, Lillee and Imran was more or less expected considering their reputation, the showing of the South African all-rounder Mike Procter and Garth le Roux was highly impressive. Dennis Lillee picked up the most wickets for Australia and was ably supported by Max Walker and later Jeff Thomson.
ALAN MCGILVRAY
Alan McGilvray, in his very informative and knowledgeable book, "The Game Goes On" as told to Norman Tusker, published after his retirement, in a chapter titled "Bradman Revisited", compares several leading batsmen (except Hayden, who was yet to emerge on the cricketing scene and Sachin Tendulkar who had just begun his career) to the great Don.
He rates the South African Barry Richards, now a leading commentator, who is one of those covering the present Test series between the Sri Lankans and the Proteas, as the closest to Bradman.
"Nobody will ever touch Bradman. He was one apart. Yet, through a couple of generations of cricketers since Bradman left center stage, comparisons have repeatedly been made, or at least attempted. Perhaps it is because those who saw him long to see something like him again. Maybe it is just the eternal hope that ultimate excellence regenerates itself. Whatever the basis of it, another Bradman is a tag that has been given to more than one young hopeful in the forty years since Bradman ended his playing days".
Citing a couple of examples of the new Bradman tag, McGilvray speaks of Ian Craig who first made the New South Wales team at 16, scored a magnificent double-century against South Africa at 17, and found himself in an Australian team of extraordinary talent and experience when still three months short of his 18th birthday.
There was a natural romance of one so young in the Australian side, which, boasted Arthur Morris, Lindsay Hassett, who succeeded Bradman as captain, Keith Miller, Neil Harvey, Bill Johnston and Douglas Ring, to say nothing of young bloods like Richie Benaud and Colin McDonald.
However, Craig found the Bradman comparison hard to live with. He failed in England in 1953, did a little better there in 1956 and ended up as captain of Australia at age 22. An illness thwarted his career thereafter. But McGilvray felt that Craig would have done so much more had the world not lined him up as another Don Bradman.
O'Neil too, found the weight of Bradman stature within the cricketing community, and particularly the press, weighing upon him.
O'Neil made a spectacular impact on Sheffield Shield cricket in the 1950s, scoring 1,005 runs in the 1957-58 season when he was just a lad of 21. Most of his runs came with a great flourish and he had some glorious strokes, wonderful strength off the blackfoot, an attitude that demanded he get on with it. He had also had enormous crowd appeal. O'Neil scored plenty of runs for Australia for seven or eight years and captured all those qualities of daring and aggression so admired in the Australian nature. But, another Bradman? That was asking too much, says the veteran broadcaster.
"I have watched many great players down the years and there is only one ever considered to be in the Bradman mould. I have seen the best from those who pre-dated Bradman like the remarkable Charlie Macartney, to contemporaries Bill Woodfull and Bill Ponsford through a plethora of world-class batsmen of every nation who have graced the game in the half-century since. For sure, there have been plenty of masterful players. Charlie Macartney was one of them. They called him the Governor-General, for his bearing at the wicket, one of total command".
"Charlie Macartney perhaps had Bradman's competitiveness. On his day, he certainly had his aggression and when things were right, much of his technical excellence. But for all his strengths, he could never put them all together, match in and match out, as Bradman could. He was no Bradman".
"Similarly Woodfull and Ponsford offered their particular strengths. But, they were no comparison to Bradman".
McGilvray says of Barry Richards, "In all the times since, only a handful of players have built careers to be mentioned in the same breath as Bradman. I narrow the field to one. By the test of technique and attitude and precision and performance, the only man I would measure against the Don is the South African Barry Richards. And, all things considered, I would suggest it would be a pretty close thing.
"There was so much about Barry Richards and Don Bradman that was similar. The anticipation and the speed with which they got themselves into position to play a shot. The timing and the power of their strokes. The thoughtful, analytical way they went about working out the bowling.
The manner in which they worked to dominate, then devastate, the best of attacks. Richards, if anything, was a little stronger than Bradman with shots on the off-side.
Bradman undoubtedly was more forceful and more effective than Richards when he played to the on-side. On either count, both were gloriously effective. Their footwork was supreme. They conserved their energy, waiting for the ball to come on and dispatching it with superb timing rather than brute power. Yet, they would dance to smother a spinner; their speed in getting into position seemed to give them so much more time, compared even to the greatest of players down the years".
Richards who launched himself almost at the precise moment when South Africa were banned from Test cricket due to its apartheid policies, could play in only four tests from 1969-70, with an average of 72 and included two centuries against the Australians.
His 140 in the second test when he passed 100 in just 116 balls, and Graeme Pollock who hit a majestic 274, consigned Australia to the scrap heap, says McGilvray. Richards scored 79 centuries in first class cricket.
"This cricket would have given Richards the hard edge he needed, enough, perhaps, even to have challenged the redoubtable Bradman".
"I have always liked to use a particular innings of each player as a measuring stick of just how similar their talents were. These were innings in which each of them scored 300 runs in a day. Bradman's was scored at Leeds in 1930 in a Test against England when Bradman was a 22-year-old prodigy.
Richards' was scored at perth in 1970, in a sheffield shield match between South Australia and Western Australia. Bradman went in eight minutes after the start of play at the fall of Archie Jackson's wicket, finished the day on 309 not out and was out next morning for 334. Richard opened up, ended the day on 325 not out, and was eventually out for 356".
"Bradman took 375 minutes to hit his 334 and hit 46 boundaries. Richards hit his 356 in 372 minutes. He found the boundary rope 48 times, and hit a six as well. It takes batsmen of rare quality to play like that. Neither player managed a century in each session in topping the 300.
Bradman hit 105 before lunch, 115 in the session between lunch and tea, and 89 in the final period when weariness was catching up with him. Richards hit 79 in the first session, 137 in the next and 109 in the last".
Both Bradman and Richards made these blistering triple centuries against very strong bowling attacks.
McGilvray says that "some would put Vivian Richards, the man who had been widely labelled as the Black Bradman, into the same class of supreme players to be measured with the Don. Great player Richards has been, he is limited when he is put against the standards of Bradman and Barry Richards".
In a world xi of his time I would always back Barry instead of anyone to bat with Gavaskar and would prefer Barry to open the all-time world xi than any batsmen because of his great attacking prowess.
QUOTING MARTIN CHANDLER
I have never enjoyed seeing Lancashire bested, but the prospect of watching Barry Richards and Gordon Greenidge continuing their partnership carried the day and I decided to go with him. The pair lifted the score to 200 before Richards, having comfortably outscored the powerful Greenidge, took one liberty too many with “Flat Jack” Simmons and was out for a glorious 128. Try as I might to put that day in perspective however I can’t – it still seems like yesterday – and in forty years I have never seen a batsman as good as Richards. Once or twice Brian Lara has come close, and occasionally I thought Martin Crowe might touch the same heights, but I know in my heart of hearts that I will never see Richards’ like again.
Richards is the greatest of my time, if not by a distance then certainly without a doubt, but few seem to agree. “Am I out of step, or is everyone else?” is the sort of question we are supposed to ask ourselves as part of a catharsis when we have made mistakes, and I have been there with Barry Richards, but nothing ever changes my mind about him, and while I am not about to suggest he was a greater batsman than Sir Donald Bradman, nor necessarily even his equal, I cannot get the thought out of my head that, had he not been a victim of the circumstances that did blight his career, Richards might have earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath as “The Don”.
Clearly that is an opinion I need to justify but I am not alone in holding it. As his career came to a close Tony Greig considered Richards to be the finest batsman in the world and expressed the view that in different circumstances I am convinced he could have rewritten the record books – and rewritten them with a style and grace matched by precious few players in the history of the game. And if that gives a clue to the way Richards batted John Arlott’s words he butchers bowling, hitting with a savage power the more impressive for being veiled by the certainty of his timing, are as good a summary as I have read.
And so to return to the comparison with Bradman. It is not without relevance to quote the great man himself on the subject of Richards; You could never tire of watching him ….. it was a privilege to see him play. The Don also had no hesitation in declaring that Richards was the best right-handed opening batsman he had seen. Perhaps he did not want to make a comparison with the left-handed Arthur Morris, who was Richards’ opening partner in his dream eleven, but he clearly ranked him above Len Hutton and Sir Jack Hobbs. The Master was past his best by the time Bradman encountered him, but he saw the best of Hutton.
That Bradman had advantages that Richards did not must be the case. For half of Bradman’s career he could not be out lbw to a delivery that pitched outside the off stump. Richards always could, and indeed for most of his time a delivery that did not strike him in line either, although that is perhaps a minor point – Barry Richards was not in the habit of not playing a shot in those circumstances. On another legal issue Bradman had uncovered wickets to contend with, although so did Richards for part of his career, and he also played much more of his cricket on the soft English wickets of the 1970s rather than the rock hard Australian shirtfronts that Bradman enjoyed in the 1930s.
S.RAJESH IN CRICINFO
In the first of the three Supertests he played that season for WSC World XI, in Sydney, Richards got starts in both innings but couldn't convert them into huge scores, scoring 57 and 48. Then came a truly magnificent display in the second match, which justified all the hype. Opening the innings with his Hampshire team-mate Gordon Greenidge, Richards scored a wonderful 207, adding 234 for the opening wicket before Greenidge was forced to retire hurt. That brought the other great Richards, Viv, to the wicket, and for the next few hours the Australian bowlers didn't know what hit them. Viv was generally a more destructive batsman, but on this day Barry outshone him, scoring 93 in the next 90 minutes, even as Viv made only 41. When Barry finally fell, the scoreboard read 369 for 1 in 60 eight-ball overs.
In the next Supertest, Barry made a half-century in the first innings but fell for a duck in the second as WSC World XI, chasing 272 for victory, fell 41 runs short. He finished the three matches with an aggregate of 388 runs in five innings, second only to Viv's 502. (Click here for more details.)
In the next season there was another Richards special, this time in the final of the World Series Supertests: in a tense, low-scoring game, where neither team had scored more than 219, WSC World XI needed to score 224 in the fourth innings. Richards stamped his presence on the chase with an outstanding unbeaten 101; the next-highest score from one of his team-mates in either innings was 44. At 84 for 4 the Australians had a slight edge, but Richards took on Dennis Lillee and Gary Gilmour and ultimately led his team to a five-wicket win.
Overall Barry Richards played only five Supertests, but he clearly left his mark - in eight innings he scored two hundreds and two fifties and averaged almost 80, which was easily the highest. Since he wasn't from Australia or West Indies he didn't play as many matches as the others, but that's hardly his fault.
QOUTING MARK NICHOLAS
Mark Nicholas: Barry Richards – A Genius In Straight Lines
October 9th, 2014
One-time AOC guest editor Mark Nicholas explains what made the great South African batsman Barry Richards his favourite player.
To me, cricket’s greatest appeal is in the aesthetics, and particularly in straight lines – I’ve always preferred say, Tendulkar to Lara – which isn’t to say I don’t like Lara – just that I like the exactness of straight lines.
When I first saw Barry, what I loved was the time he had to play, however challenging the bowler. Jeff Thomson was the first truly fast bowler I saw bowl at Barry and Barry had time to play him. He played fantastically, scoring 90-odd at Southampton against the Australian tourists in 1975. I liked the exactness of his technique, both against speed and spin.
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And then what I loved most of all was that he could use that to his advantage with his great sense of adventure. So, even when he was hitting inside out over extra cover – which in those days people didn’t really do – or backing away and late cutting, he was still doing it from a perfect technical foundation.
It may be that your thing is the Kevin Pietersen flamingo shot or the Garry Sobers back-foot drive from a half-volley. But mine was Barry using his imagination and sense of adventure to provide something close to perfect both when defending and attacking.
So risqué could he be that when you went to watch him you spent your time fearing he’d get out. That added such a frisson to the moments. But the truth is, Barry set out to entertain. He brought joy to a lot of people, but through that determination to entertain he also brought frustration – particularly in his own team, who could see that he when he got out for 100, he should have got 150 or 200. Instead, often he’d just hit it up in the air, because he’d got bored with the challenge.
People say it’s impossible to judge him because he only played four Test matches. That is a perfectly fair argument, but equally history shows that every challenge put before him, he rose to. When he went to play in the Sheffield Shield, his record was sans pareil. When he played in World Series Cricket, he thrived – I’ll never forget the fighting innings that won the Super Test Final against the Australians – when they threw everything at him, he made an unbeaten hundred and saw the Rest of the World through. His double hundred at Gloucester Park in conjunction with the other great strokemaking Richards – Viv – was also very special. In England, when the tourists came, Barry made runs against them. I believe that Test cricket would have been the next challenge that he would have mastered.
Of all the great honours that have been bestowed upon him in words, the one that might mean the most was being selected in Donald Bradman’s all-time XI – that gave him a rubber stamp from someone whose opinions became almost as important as his own batting.
Barry combined everything that I wanted out of batting and could do it all as if it was a walk in the park
