“If you hit me for four,” he explained, “what is there to smile about.” Yet he didn’t smile when he flattened your stumps either. He was just that kind of man: uncompromising, serious, even-keeled.
I don’t think he gained any pleasure from hitting batters. Yet, he didn’t seem overly perturbed by it either. Fast bowling of the kind in which he dealt, was a dangerous matter for the fellow at the other end. A hard ball hurled at great pace can do substantial damage when it lands on soft flesh. Physical jeopardy, after all, is part of the game.
The list of batters forced to endure pain inflicted by Roberts is long. In his Autobiography, Sir Viv, Viv Richards goes through a catalog of batters who were hurt from deliveries propelled by his countryman’s right arm: