From: sridhara@plains.NoDak.edu (Venkatesh Sridharan)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: ADIEU (Part 2)
Summary: None
Keywords: Vivian Richards.
Date: 16 Apr 92 04:30:11 GMT
Followup-To: ADIEU.
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo

This is Part 2 of 'ADIEU', a series of articles detailing the career of
Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards. My apologies for the inordinate delay
in the posting of this article. Hope you enjoy reading it.

Corrections and remarks are especially welcome, please email them to
                 sridhara@plains.Nodak.edu


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I made a mistake in my last article in this series, I had mentioned that
the next tour after the Windies 1-5 loss to Australia was the one against
England, well, the next tour was against India, the one in the West Indies.
This series was a significant one, for one thing, it was famous for the
stupendous run chase by India in the the Third test at Port of Spain,
set 402 to win, the Indians got the runs for the loss of only 6 wickets,
2 of them run out. The West Indian "retaliation" to this insult is equally
well chronicled, I am alluding to the infamous Kingston bloodbath, a test in
which 5 Indians were injured. For Vivian Richards, this was the beginning of
a long streak of massive scores, made with utter ease and in glorious style.

                              The first test was played at Bridgetown, Barbados
in this test, Richards made 142. He followed this with 130 (out of 241) at
Port of Spain in the second Test. The third Test, which featured the famous
run chase saw Viv scoring 177 runs, an innings he rates very highly. In the
final Test at Kingston, Richards scored 64, considering his scores in that
series, this can be rated a very ordinary effort, in fact, Viv always had
trouble making big scores at Kingston. He has made only one century at
Kingston in Tests, the one in the final Test against India in the 1989 series.
In this series, Richards scored 556 runs in the four matches, averaging 92.6.

                          While the runs were made in a  style made famous
by Viv, another thing was very evident, Viv was a notoriously bad starter
and was very shaky at the beginning of his innings, many critics and 
contemporaries have noted this, prominent among them being Sunil Gavaskar
and Imran Khan.

The next tour was the one against Tony Greig's England, this is another
series that is unlikely to be forgotten by any cricket fan. In this tour
the West Indies began their memorable streak of victories, a streak that 
has not really ended even today, as far as test matches are concerned.
Before the series, Tony Greig, in a Television interview, claimed that 
he would make the West Indies "grovel", his use of a term that was so
derogatory and demeaning did not go unpunished, England were whipped
0-3 by the West Indies. This series saw the emergence of the pace quartret
of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Vanburn Holder and the inexperienced but
very quick Wayne Daniel. The quartet demolished England totally, but the
contribution of Viv Richards to the emphatic West Indies victory was not
in any way inferior.

I now quote directly from Michael Manley's " A History of West Indies
Cricket".

" ... he ( Tony Greig) boasted that he would make the WI 'grovel' in England,
this remark would have been unacceptable from any captain of any race. The
fact that it was made by a South African could only heighten the tension.
However, even that was forgotten when the match began; indeed, the entire
match was dominated by the batting of Viv Richards. He made 232 runs in 
7 hours and 18 minutes in an innings in which restraint alternated with
abundant, almost extravagant strokeplay. Built like a middle weight boxer
with powerful arms and shoulders, Richards on the go will always be remembered
as one of the exhilarating sights of cricket. At this point in his career,
Richards was twenty four and hungry for runs with the appetite of a Bradman,
a Hammond or a Weekes..."

" Richards display helped account for the massive crowd trying to get in
to see the first day of play at Lord's in the second Test..."

Unfortunately, this was the one Test that Viv was destined to miss, he was
ruled out due to injury. In an interview that I read some years ago, I 
remember Viv saying that the fact that he missed that Test, combined with
the fact that he always used to dream about playing at Lord's (as a young
cricketer) made him extra keen to succeed at Lord's, whatever be the 
occasion, people all over the world know that he succeeded far more than he
failed at Lord's.

In the Third Test, Viv made " an imperious 135", but the West Indian batting
in this Test was dominated by Gordon Greenidge who made 134 and 101 in the
two innings. In the first innings, Viv was bowled by Mike Selvey, a fast 
bowler making his debut. Incidentally, on debut, Selvey took 4 wickets.
Awesome fast bowling by Andy Roberts in the second innings
(6 for 37) saw the West Indies win the game by the huge margin of 425 runs.
The West Indians were now beginning to get into the winning stride that was
only occasionally interrupted for the best part of a decade.
In the next test, which the West Indians won again, Richards made 66 and
38. Viv's best however, did not come till the last Test at the Oval:
he made a fantastic 291, an innings that is rated as being among the best
ever, fit to be ranked with any ever played by Sobers or Bradman. This 
innings was embellished with no less than 40 boundaries.

So Viv concluded the series with 829 runs from the 4 Tests that he played,
his run of scores in the series was as follows: 232, 63, 4, 135, 66, 38
and 291.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part 3 will be posted as soon as it is complete.

VENKY (Venkatesh Sridharan).
Win or Lose, forever Windies.
email: sridhara@plains.Nodak.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket