Harsh Thakor
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- Oct 1, 2012
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No doubt Viv Richards was supreme when it came to domination and was the equivalent of a greek God on the silver screen.His batting in 1976 in England and in WSC Supertests in 1977-78 literally defined the modern cricketing era.Viv was arguably more mercurila than any batsmen ever taking anihilation of an opponent to it's supreme height in sport ,let alone cricket.In Packer cricket he could look in adifferent league from even Barry Richards or the Chappell brothers,in the view of some.Sunil Gavaskar was an epitome of concentration ,breaking all the batting records and was technical correctness personified.From 1976-79 he broke more records than any batsmen after Bradman facing the graetset pace bolwers ever like Robert,siMran ,Holding ,Hadlee,Thomson and Willis.
However it was Greg Chappell who blended technical skill and agression more than any batsmen in official test cricket like a Viv Richards and Sunmil Gavaskar blended into one.Greg was like an architect,poet and boxer rolled into one.He took domination of bowling to it's supreme zenith but still posessed the sublime elegance of a ballad dancer and the technical skill of a surgeon.Greg scored more runs against great fast bolwers than any batsmen of the 1970's.Scored 702 runs at average of 117 in 1975-76 fcaing Holding and Roberts,averaged over 57 facing Imran Khan in 1976-77 ,scored174 and 246 in succesive games in WSC supertests in 1977-78 against a world xi with Andy Roberts and Imran Khan and amassed 621 runs at an average of 69 with 3 centuries against West Indies in 5 WSC supertests in the Carribean in 1979.Overall in World series cricket Greg was the most proific aggregating 1416 runs at an average of 56.14.No batsmen scored more runs against the full pronged attack in the Carribaen or ammased such a high score against a world xi.He even averaged 25 runs more than Viv Richards in the 5 tests in 1979.
Earlier in 1972 Greg averaged 100 against the Rest of the world which wa s remarkable.True he faced blowers like Bedi,Greig and Sobers past his peak.
Adding Wsc cricket and scores for rest of the world Greg would average over 55 overall and score 31 centuries overall.Infact it should have been Greg and not Gavaskar who was the most prolific batsmen of the 1970's decade.Gavaskar,probably was the better player considering he was an opening batsmen and the fact that he held the mantle for a relatively weak side.Neverthless statistically in the moral sense Greg was ahead of Sunil.Gavaskar had the advantage of not plaing Lillee in 1977-78 and not facing a full strength Calypso pace attack in India in 1978-79.Gavaskar's 774 run sin 1970-71 in West Indies was also scored against a relatively moderate attack.
Viv started his career in 1974-75 ,while Greg played some of his greatest cricket from 1970-71 like his 247 n.o and 133 v New Zealand and his 131 at Lords in 1972.
In terms of pure cricketing perfection Barry Richards topped the list,but he hardly even played unofficial international cricket..Viv Richards defined cricketing genius more than anyone.Gavaskar broke more records than anyone .Ian Chappell was the best batsmen in a crisis.However in a total package adding unoffical games ,Greg was the statistical champion I feel Greg was more complete than Gavaskar or Viv .Morally Greg Performed marginally better than Gavaskar who scored 5647 runs at an average of 55.91.
Quoting S.Rajesh on cricinfo on Greg Chappell
Forty percent of the Tests Chappell played were against traditional rivals England. He had his share of victories in those battles, scoring five hundreds in the 13 Tests Australia won, but overall his stats against England were slightly below par: against an overall average of almost 54, his average against England slipped to under 46 overall, and to 40.80 in England. Not surprisingly the two bowlers who dismissed him most often are both from England - Derek Underwood (13) and Bob Willis (nine). Despite those relatively average stats, Chappell remains the fifth-highest run-getter for Australia against England, and only Steve Waugh and Don Bradman have more centuries against them.
His other great battles came against the pace attack of West Indies, including some of his best and worst moments. In the home series in 1975-76, Chappell scored 702 runs at an average of 117; his aggregate is the highest by an Australian in a series against West Indies, and the fourth-highest by any batsman against them. In 1981-82, though, the story was completely different, as Chappell managed 86 runs in six innings, which included two first-ball ducks. That was easily his worst performance in a series.
Chappell's battles against the West Indies pace attack extended beyond the Test scene; he tackled them in the Supertests in World Series Cricket as well, and performed superbly. In 14 matches he averaged more than 56, which was significantly more than any other Australian batsman.
The table below shows the performance of top batsmen across the seasons of WSC. Viv Richards came into the World Series with great confidence, after having scored 1710 runs in 1976, which remained a Test record till 2006. He certainly lived up to his reputation scoring four centuries at an average of 64.05. The fact that this was achieved against the finest fast bowlers lends further weight to the fact that he was the best batsman in the world at that point. Barry Richards played just four Tests in his career, but his batting in WSC showed just what cricket had missed.
Quoting Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan:
Greg Chappell vindicated his status as one of the best players of fast bowing and his tally of over 1400 runs at an average of 56.60 with five centuries put him in a league of his own. The bowling that he faced included the likes of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Imran Khan. Many batsmen wilted in the face of hostile pace bowling and they averaged well below their overall Test averages. David Hookes, on the other hand, despite being fairly new to international cricket, performed superbly in World Series Cricket, but rather surprisingly turned out to be a failure in international cricket after the two years.
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.
statistisc compiled from S.Rajesh of cricinfo
Performance of top batsmen in World Series Cricket Batsman Team Matches Innings Runs 100s 50s Average
Barry Richards World XI 5 8 554 2 2 79.14
Greg Chappell Australia 14 26 1415 5 4 56.60
Vivian Richards West Indies and World XI 14 25 1281 4 4 55.69
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
However it was Greg Chappell who blended technical skill and agression more than any batsmen in official test cricket like a Viv Richards and Sunmil Gavaskar blended into one.Greg was like an architect,poet and boxer rolled into one.He took domination of bowling to it's supreme zenith but still posessed the sublime elegance of a ballad dancer and the technical skill of a surgeon.Greg scored more runs against great fast bolwers than any batsmen of the 1970's.Scored 702 runs at average of 117 in 1975-76 fcaing Holding and Roberts,averaged over 57 facing Imran Khan in 1976-77 ,scored174 and 246 in succesive games in WSC supertests in 1977-78 against a world xi with Andy Roberts and Imran Khan and amassed 621 runs at an average of 69 with 3 centuries against West Indies in 5 WSC supertests in the Carribean in 1979.Overall in World series cricket Greg was the most proific aggregating 1416 runs at an average of 56.14.No batsmen scored more runs against the full pronged attack in the Carribaen or ammased such a high score against a world xi.He even averaged 25 runs more than Viv Richards in the 5 tests in 1979.
Earlier in 1972 Greg averaged 100 against the Rest of the world which wa s remarkable.True he faced blowers like Bedi,Greig and Sobers past his peak.
Adding Wsc cricket and scores for rest of the world Greg would average over 55 overall and score 31 centuries overall.Infact it should have been Greg and not Gavaskar who was the most prolific batsmen of the 1970's decade.Gavaskar,probably was the better player considering he was an opening batsmen and the fact that he held the mantle for a relatively weak side.Neverthless statistically in the moral sense Greg was ahead of Sunil.Gavaskar had the advantage of not plaing Lillee in 1977-78 and not facing a full strength Calypso pace attack in India in 1978-79.Gavaskar's 774 run sin 1970-71 in West Indies was also scored against a relatively moderate attack.
Viv started his career in 1974-75 ,while Greg played some of his greatest cricket from 1970-71 like his 247 n.o and 133 v New Zealand and his 131 at Lords in 1972.
In terms of pure cricketing perfection Barry Richards topped the list,but he hardly even played unofficial international cricket..Viv Richards defined cricketing genius more than anyone.Gavaskar broke more records than anyone .Ian Chappell was the best batsmen in a crisis.However in a total package adding unoffical games ,Greg was the statistical champion I feel Greg was more complete than Gavaskar or Viv .Morally Greg Performed marginally better than Gavaskar who scored 5647 runs at an average of 55.91.
Quoting S.Rajesh on cricinfo on Greg Chappell
Forty percent of the Tests Chappell played were against traditional rivals England. He had his share of victories in those battles, scoring five hundreds in the 13 Tests Australia won, but overall his stats against England were slightly below par: against an overall average of almost 54, his average against England slipped to under 46 overall, and to 40.80 in England. Not surprisingly the two bowlers who dismissed him most often are both from England - Derek Underwood (13) and Bob Willis (nine). Despite those relatively average stats, Chappell remains the fifth-highest run-getter for Australia against England, and only Steve Waugh and Don Bradman have more centuries against them.
His other great battles came against the pace attack of West Indies, including some of his best and worst moments. In the home series in 1975-76, Chappell scored 702 runs at an average of 117; his aggregate is the highest by an Australian in a series against West Indies, and the fourth-highest by any batsman against them. In 1981-82, though, the story was completely different, as Chappell managed 86 runs in six innings, which included two first-ball ducks. That was easily his worst performance in a series.
Chappell's battles against the West Indies pace attack extended beyond the Test scene; he tackled them in the Supertests in World Series Cricket as well, and performed superbly. In 14 matches he averaged more than 56, which was significantly more than any other Australian batsman.
The table below shows the performance of top batsmen across the seasons of WSC. Viv Richards came into the World Series with great confidence, after having scored 1710 runs in 1976, which remained a Test record till 2006. He certainly lived up to his reputation scoring four centuries at an average of 64.05. The fact that this was achieved against the finest fast bowlers lends further weight to the fact that he was the best batsman in the world at that point. Barry Richards played just four Tests in his career, but his batting in WSC showed just what cricket had missed.
Quoting Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan:
Greg Chappell vindicated his status as one of the best players of fast bowing and his tally of over 1400 runs at an average of 56.60 with five centuries put him in a league of his own. The bowling that he faced included the likes of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Imran Khan. Many batsmen wilted in the face of hostile pace bowling and they averaged well below their overall Test averages. David Hookes, on the other hand, despite being fairly new to international cricket, performed superbly in World Series Cricket, but rather surprisingly turned out to be a failure in international cricket after the two years.
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.
statistisc compiled from S.Rajesh of cricinfo
Performance of top batsmen in World Series Cricket Batsman Team Matches Innings Runs 100s 50s Average
Barry Richards World XI 5 8 554 2 2 79.14
Greg Chappell Australia 14 26 1415 5 4 56.60
Vivian Richards West Indies and World XI 14 25 1281 4 4 55.69
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
