Sir Vivian Richards is the bible of cricket’s chosen one for the first decade.

With no disrespect to Kapil and his 1983 World Cup heroics and beyond, Richards was the one who held sway over others even in the 1980s, despite the fact that the decade coincided with the West Indies losing its grip on the World Cup.

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Apart from all that glory achieved in bilateral and triangular series, Richards became the highest scorer in ODI cricket in the 1980s. His unbeaten 189 against England at Manchester in 1984 put Kapil Dev’s 175 against Zimbabwe scored a year prior to second spot.

Then, in 1987, Richards plundered a World Cup 181 against Sri Lanka at Karachi.

ODI cricket was in its nascent years in the 1970s and Richards, nicknamed Smokin’ Joe, made the best use of the opportunities he got in the first decade of instant cricket. 

It all started for him at the 1975 World Cup. His best effort with the bat was an unbeaten 15 in the Group B game against Australia at the Oval but, in the final, his quicksilver fielding ran out opener Alan Turner as well as Ian and Greg Chappell.

The following English summer, after slaying England for 829 runs in four Tests, his form stayed on for the three-match Prudential series. In Game One at Scarborough, he smashed 119 not out as West Indies reached their 203-run target in 41 overs. In the next match at Lord’s, he was last man out as West Indies set Tony Greig’s team 222 to win in 50 overs. David Frith watched it and wrote in The Cricketer: “He made 97, holed out to deep square leg, last man out, and strolled off as casually as he strolled onto the field at Trent Bridge for his first Test innings of the summer back in early June.” England fell 36 short and even lost the third match of the series at Edgbaston, where Richards was out for duck; caught at cover by Barry Wood off John Lever.

By the time the 1979 World Cup was held, Richards was the most destructive batsman in the world; a reputation built in Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. 

Like in 1975, he saved his best for the final against England, who were at the receiving end of his 138 not out. He put on 139 for the fifth wicket with Collis King (86) in only 77 minutes. And though Joel Garner claimed 5-38, the man of the match clearly was Richards. 

Desmond Haynes, who was Richards’s room partner, revealed in the book Lion of Barbados that Richards woke up on the morning of the final (June 23, 1979) and before saying good morning, he uttered: “There’s going to be a lot of people at Lord’s today. It would be a good time to really turn it on.” And he did, for West Indies’ second World Cup title.

The Australian summer of 1979-80 saw the West Indies and England visit Down Under for three Tests each and a triangular series. Richards played a leading role in West Indies’ first Test series win with 386 runs in three Tests. He made an impact in the triangular as well and one of the reasons why he was the player of the series was his unbeaten 153 against Australia at Melbourne on December 9. It helped West Indies to pile up 271-2 before Australia were restricted to 191-8. Ian Chappell, who played a few games in that series but not the Melbourne one, thought about Superman while writing a man-of-the-match profile for a journal of the season called One Day Cricket. Chappell decided to embellish his article with the lyrics of Jim Croce’s song, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim. He wrote: “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off that Old Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Viv.”

Celebrated Australian writer Ray Robinson was as profound. “His 153 not out in 130 balls contained every shot known to batsmanship and a number of unknown until he brought them off. Though wincing at times, he grinned after stepping back to squeeze a leg-stump yorker from Jeff Thomson to the off boundary,” he wrote. 

Richards, according to reports, had taken a pain-killing injection before walking out to face the Australian attack. He later helped West Indies overcome England to win the triangular series but he played through considerable pain. “I had an X-Ray in Melbourne and it disclosed a slight crack in the lower part of my back. The pain, however, has been in the hip,” Richards told Australian Cricket magazine. Despite that, he ended the 1970s in glory, making that SS Jumbo bat an eyesore to his opponents. Wisden will know what he did in the 1980s as well and not many will disagree that he was the most destructive batsman of his generation, if not of all-time.

mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello
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