Eye-witnesses often swear by Viv Richards. For them, he was the most menacing batsman of his era, and for many the greatest since Don Bradman. Abhishek Mukherjee analyseshis performances against quality pace.
There was a reason they referred to Viv Richards as King. The swagger to the crease, the calm, ruthless machismo with the bat in hand, biceps bulging from shirts too tight to contain them, a glare that often sent a chill down the spine of the bowler, the rhythmic, waiting chewing of the gum — they all killed the bowler psychologically even before the first ball was delivered. The battle was half won by the time he started the run-up.
Richards was special, and that is an understatement. Despite the greatness of his contemporaries (Greg Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar, and Javed Miandad, to name three) Richards’ impact has been the most. None of the others intimidated bowlers to the extent King Viv did: it needs an eye-witness to describe his feats.
A question commonly asked by fans, however, is: how good was Viv against fast bowling? Was he as good when it came to handling a pace battery consisting of four fast bowlers the way his contemporaries had to? How would he have fared against the likes of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, and most significantly, Malcolm Marshall?
Let us find out. After all, he did take him on at domestic level.
Against the fast bowlers
How good was Viv in West Indian domestic cricket? How did he do against the champions of West Indies? Richards played First-Class cricket for Combined Leeward and Windward Islands (26 matches) as well as Leeward Islands (28 matches). How did he do in these outings?
M
R
Ave
100s
Combined Leeward and Windward Islands
26
1,661
35.34
5
Leeward Islands
28
1,669
45.11
4
First-Class cricket in West Indies
54
3,330
39.64
9
[Note: Some of these matches were played against touring sides.]
That does not look too encouraging, does it? But then, how had Richards’ contemporaries fared in West Indies against their fearsome fast bowlers? Let us go through this excellent research from Arunabha Sengupta for further details. Here is a list of batsmen against West Indies in West Indies:
Batsman
M
R
Ave
100s
Steve Waugh
6
461
76.83
1
Mohinder Amarnath
6
697
63.36
2
Wasim Raja
5
517
57.44
1
Michael Atherton
5
510
56.66
2
Allan Border
10
796
53.06
1
Majid Khan
5
530
53.00
1
Mark Waugh
9
607
50.58
2
David Gower
9
746
43.88
1
Graham Gooch
11
864
41.14
2
Alec Stewart
9
647
40.43
2
[Note: The list is restricted to batsmen who had scored at least 300 Test runs on West Indian soil. The period considered for analysis is April 21, 1976 to April 29, 1995 apart from eleven Tests played by a depleted side between March 3, 1978 and February 2, 1979.]
Richards’ numbers does not look impressive compared to some others. It is to be noted that Richards almost never faced four quality fast bowlers in the same match, which is something these men had to. Mohinder Amarnath, who seldom got a taste of a fast bowler (let alone four) or bouncy tracks in his home conditions, deserves a special mention here.
Talking of fast bowlers, let us check Richards’ numbers against each opposition:
Opposition
M
I
NO
R
Ave
100s
Fast bowlers
Barbados
13
23
1
601
27.32
1
Keith Boyce, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Wayne Daniel,
Michael Holding, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson
Trinidad and Tobago
11
17
2
813
54.20
3
Bernard Julien, Tony Gray, Ian Bishop
Windward Islands
5
7
295
42.14
Winston Davis
[Note: Vanburn Holder, despite being a top-notch performer, was fast-medium.]
Trinidad and Tobago seems to be the only opposition against whom Richards had thrived. It is to be remembered that Andy Roberts, Eldine Baptiste, Winston Benjamin, and Curtly Ambrose were his teammates, which meant that he was spared at least four men. He did not have a good time against Barbados and Jamaica, which have traditionally been the breeding grounds of Caribbean fast bowlers.
Bernard Julien, Tony Gray, and Ian Bishop were fantastic bowlers for Trinidad and Tobago, but there was a catch: Julien’s First-Class career ended in 1982; Gray’s career lasted from 1983 to 1995; and Bishop’s from 1986 to 1999. Unfortunately, both Gray and Bishop were extremely injury-prone, and did not have very long careers in West Indian domestic circuit — but they were still as menacing as any fast bowling pair.
Let us consider another parameter, then: how did Richards perform against the West Indian sides at their dens? Richards had played 25 away First-Class matches on West Indian soil: let us do a match-by-match break-up (the bowlers mentioned above — let us call these “star” bowlers — are marked in red).
Season
Opposition
Ground
Seamer 1
Seamer 2
Seamer 3
Seamer 4
Innings 1
Innings 2
71-72
Windward Islands
Roseau
Norbert Phillip
Grayson Shillingford
David Defoe
20
26
71-72
Jamaica
Sabina Park
Uton Dowe
Cecil Lawson
15
32
71-72
Guyana
Skeldon
Sydney Matthews
Keith Glasgow
23
59
72-73
Barbados
Kensington Oval
Vanburn Holder
Colin Payne
Stephen Farmer
11
52
72-73
Trinidad and Tobago
Queen’s Park Oval
Bernard Julien
Prince Bartholomew
5
0
73-74
Jamaica
Sabina Park
Michael Holding
Uton Dowe
40
7
73-74
Guyana
Rose Hall
Philbert Blair
Keith Cameron
4
78
74-75
Barbados
Kensington Oval
Keith Boyce
Vanburn Holder
Greg Armstrong
13
54
74-75
Trinidad and Tobago
Queen’s Park Oval
Bernard Julien
Prince Bartholomew
14
10
76-77
Barbados
Kensington Oval
Joel Garner
Vanburn Holder
Stephen Farmer
124
45
79-80
Jamaica
Sabina Park
Ray Wynter
Clement Thomson
1
0
79-80
Barbados
Kensington Oval
Joel Garner
Malcolm Marshall
Sylvester Clarke
0
3
80-81
Trinidad and Tobago
Queen’s Park Oval
Alec Burns
Eric Audain
168*
1
80-81
Barbados
Kensington Oval
Malcolm Marshall
Sylvester Clarke
Wayne Daniel
Hartley Alleyne
4
13
81-82
Windward Islands
Roseau
Winston Davis
Norbert Phillip
92
1
81-82
Jamaica
Sabina Park
Courtney Walsh
Ray Wynter
73
50
82-83
Barbados
Kensington Oval
Malcolm Marshall
Wayne Daniel
Hartley Alleyne
Neal Phillips
0
45
85-86
Jamaica
Sabina Park
Michael Holding
Courtney Walsh
Patrick Patterson
Aaron Daley
2
5
85-86
Guyana
Bourda
Collie Solomon
Mark Grenville
32
87-88
Barbados
Kensington Oval
Malcolm Marshall
Joel Garner
Victor Walcott
70
89-90
Barbados
Kensington Oval
Ezra Moseley
Franklyn Stephenson
Sam Skeete
Anthony Johnson
25*
89-90
Jamaica
Sabina Park
Courtney Walsh
Patrick Patterson
16
17
90-91
Trinidad and Tobago
Queen’s Park Oval
Ian Bishop
Tony Gray
12
90-91
Windward Islands
St George’s
Cameron Cuffy
Ian Allen
Wesley Thomas
Neil Williams
73
90-91
Guyana
Bourda
Barrington Browne
Calvin Belgrave
0
Indeed, barring the 124 and 45* against Garner at Kensington Oval, Richards has seldom played a quality innings with even one “star” bowler at their den. His other hundred, 168*, came against two seamers who were not quite regarded as “stars.”
Let us now do a break-up of Richards’ away career on West Indian soil:
M
I
NO
R
Ave
100s
Away career on West Indian soil
25
44
2
1335
31.79
2
Against three away “star” seamers
3
6
27
4.50
Against two away “star” seamers
5
7
1
185
30.83
1
Against one away “star” seamers
7
14
528
37.71
Against no away “star” seamer
10
17
1
595
37.19
1
But then, there was the County Championship in England (where he had always thrived — albeit under different conditions), where Richards scored 17,548 runs for Somerset and Glamorgan at 49.43 with 55 hundreds. But the question remains: did he ever have to play four, even three, or even two West Indian fast bowlers at the same time, even in the Championship?
Let us check the counties the “star” seamers played for:
County
Fast bowler 1
Fast bowler 2
Fast bowler 3
Lancashire
Croft (77, 78, 80, 82)
Holding (81)
Patterson (84-90)
Northamptonshire
Davis (87-90)
Baptiste (91)
Ambrose (89-96)
Derbyshire
Holding (83, 85-89)
Bishop (89, 90, 92)
Glamorgan
Davis (82, 83, 84)
Moseley (80, 81, 86)
Gloucestershire
Stephenson (82, 83)
Walsh (84-87, 89, 90, 92-94, 96, 98)
Hampshire
Roberts (74, 75, 77, 78)
Marshall (79, 81-83, 85-87, 89, 90, 92, 93)
Kent
Julien (71-75, 77)
Baptiste (81-87)
Essex
Boyce (68-77)
Leicestershire
Roberts (81-84)
Middlesex
Daniel (77-88)
Nottinghamshire
Stephenson (88-91)
Somerset
Garner (77-79, 81-83, 85, 86)
Surrey
Gray (85-87, 90)
Sussex
Stephenson (92-95)
[Note: Garner played alongside Richards for Somerset.]
It is to be noted that Richards played in the County Championship for Somerset (1974, 1975, 1977 — 1983, 1985, and 1986) and for Glamorgan (1990 — 1993).
The only seasons when two West Indian fast bowlers played for the same county were:
– 1989, when Holding and Bishop both played for Derbyshire. Richards did not play that season.
– 1989, when Davis and Ambrose both played for Northamptonshire. Richards did not play that season.
– 1990, when Davis and Ambrose both played for Northamptonshire. Richards played one match against them that season, in which Davis did not play.
There is no real need to elaborate any further. The numbers do the talking.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here)
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