Viv is King of All One-Dayers - Wisden

Tue, Feb 12, '02

Former West Indies star batsman Vivian Richards is the number one performer in the history of one-day cricket, according to a Wisden survey to be revealed this week.

England felt the power of the Richards' heavyweight bat probably more than any other team, and he flattened their bowling with at least two exceptional centuries in his career.

The most famous of these was his important hundred that won the World Cup at Lord's in 1979, but his best, according to many enthusiasts, happened in Manchester five years later.

Richards once said that one-day cricket was like fast food - "nobody wants to cook".

He was referring to the often slap-dash nature of one-day cricket when players tended to ease back on hard work and ignore the basics. Like mass-produced burgers, one-dayers were usually all too forgettable.

There were notable exceptions. The West Indian made that comment after his best seasons had passed, but a few years earlier, in 1984, he had hit his 189 not out against England at Old Trafford, the most spectacular one-day 100 of them all.

The statistics were impressive enough, 170 balls with 21 fours and five sixes - one drive disappearing like a meteor over Warwick Road - but the match situation marked his innings out as exceptional.

In this first Texaco Trophy match of a blazing hot summer, Clive Lloyd's West Indies side slipped to 102 for seven before the carnage that Richards inflicted on Bob Willis, Neil Foster and company, which overturned England's advantage completely.

Kapil Dev had achieved a similarly stunning turn-around in the World Cup the previous summer by scoring 175 not out after India had collapsed to 17 for five. But the venue was Tunbridge Wells and his opponents were the lesser mortals of Zimbabwe.

Richards' eyesight was so acute he often reckoned he could discern spectators' faces clearly at the back of a stand while he was at the crease. The ball must have looked big at Old Trafford.

Richards put on 106 in 14 overs with last-man Michael Holding, who contributed 12 runs, which was more extraordinary, even, than the 1979 final at Lord's when the Antiguan put on 139 in 21 overs with Collis King, the flamboyant all-rounder.

In 1979 Richards made 138 not out and King 86 on a miserable afternoon for Mike Brearley's England. Ian Botham was the only bowler to suffer from both of the Richards starbursts five years apart.

The 1984 show featured David Gower as England's captain, off-spinner Geoff Miller as the best bowler, with three wickets, and Mike Gatting as an admiring fielder.

Gatting recalled: "There was a feeling of helplessness when Viv started strolling down the wicket.

"He decided he had got in and that the ball wasn't doing a great deal. He hit the ball wherever wanted.

"It didn't matter who bowled at him, even Bob Willis who had bowled very well at the start. It was the best innings I've ever seen in that sort of situation, when he turned the game round single-handedly."

* SOURCE: Trinidad Guardian.