Hail the King!!

Not often would you see a team's morale taking a beating after getting a wicket of a top class batsman, but this is precisely what happened for over a decade when teams faced the West Indies. At the fall of the first wicket, which was either Gordon Greenidge or Desmond Haynes, in walked Issac Vivian Alexander Richards. His swagger and regal gait coupled with the air of nonchalance best expressed by chewing gum with no regard for the bowler or the match situation made most bowlers quake in their knees. In an era of exceptionally quick bowlers who had a penchant for knocking batsmen out, Viv Richards exuded an extraordinary confidence bordering on arrogance, when he walked out to face them. He never ever wore a helmet and his threatening message was made known to the bowlers well before he took guard.

Viv Richards was an exceptional batsman blessed with a fantastic eye. His ability to read the length far quicker than most others and his unbridled aggressive nature made him almost impossible to bowl to. He was also a very useful bowler and his feline reflexes made him one of the finest fielders in the game.

He made his debut at Bangalore in 1974 along with Gordon Greenidge. Whilst Greenidge had a great match making 93 and 107, Richards had a very forgettable debut contributing just 4 and 3. Soon, he was in his stride though cracking 192 at Delhi and announced himself. The following year, in the tour of Australia, he was at the receiving end of some hostile fast bowling by Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. The tough as nails approach of the Aussies coupled with the barrage of sledging he faced unnerved the young Richards at first. But at the end of what was a disastrous tour overall for the West Indies as they lost 1-5, he was one of the few positives.

The 1975 World Cup Final saw Richards change the course of the game with his fantastic fielding as he was responsible for running out the Chappell brothers to help the West Indies win a close final. The year 1976 would turn out to be Viv Richards's 'annus mirabilis'. They travelled to England to take on Tony Greig's team.
Greig, the English captain had his roots in South Africa and had rather insensitively said before the tour that he would make the West Indies 'grovel'. The rather racist remark did not go down too well with the proud Richards and he took it upon himself to make England pay dearly for that. In one of the most amazing displays of batting, he amassed 829 runs in the series despite missing one test. Tony Greig crawled behind the West Indian team as his English side were vanquished at the Oval courtesy Richards's 291 and a breathtaking display of sustained hostile fast bowling by Michael Holding who took 14/147 on a docile track. Viv Richards had made two double hundreds and by the end of the calendar year he had 1710 runs, a record that stood for almost 3 decades.





Kerry Packer's rebel series flagged off in 1977 and almost all great stars of the game were a part of it including Richards. Once the television rights were settled, Richards was back to the main team and at the time of the World Cup in 1979, he was indisputably the greatest batsman in the game. In the final of the World Cup at Lords, the West Indies took on England. Richards, partnered by Collis King who made 86 off 66 balls launched an imperious attack on the hapless Englishmen stroking a glorious 138 n.o culminating his innings with two of the most audacious strokes seen when he moved across to the off stump and sent Mike Hendrick's deliveries over the square leg fence. This very display symbolized the man. His range of shots, the extraordinary belief and confidence, his arrogance and pride made him the most exciting cricketer by a distance.

The runs continued to flow from his blade as the West Indians under Clive Lloyd lorded over the cricket world. He seemed to reserve his best for the big games. His centuries in the world cup, the finals of the world series in Australia and not to mention the county championship finals where he along with Ian Botham and Joel Garner took lowly Somerset to great heights. India, in a remarkable heist stunned the West Indies at Lords in 1983 to lift the World Cup. Viv Richards looked to be making the day his own until Kapil Dev pouched a stunning catch to turn the game.

In the series following the World Cup, the West Indians thrashed India heavily in tests and ODI's making up for the World cup defeat and Richards scored heavily throughout. He was an integral part of Clive loyd's team in 1984 that effected the first 'blackwash' on England when they trounced them 5-0 in England. But Richards's best performance was saved for the one day series. At Old Trafford in Manchester, England had the West Indies in dire straits at 166/9 with only Michael Holding left with Richards. In surely what has to be the greatest innings ever played in a one day match, Richards took on the English bowlers and smashed them to all corners in his immortal 189*. A fairly good English attack of Botham, Willis, Foster and Pringle was treated like a club attack and some strokes left those watching stunned. His quite extraordinary flick off Botham from a ball on off stump which went over square leg between 2 fielders had the great all rounder stare in disbelief and his remarkable assault deflated the English team. A 106 run last wicket stand with Holding contributing just 12 runs had undoubtedly shown the world that when Richards was in full flow, there was hardly anything any bowler or captain could do to stem the onslaught.



Viv Richards naturally became Lloyd's heir when the legendary left hander decided to hang up his boots. He led the West Indies to another 'blackwash' of England in 1985, this time in the Caribbean. This series is best remembered for the fastest test century he made in 56 balls when he went berserk in Antigua. His mauling of the English attack left no one in doubt about the great man's genius. He continued to lead the team until 1991 without losing a single series. His batting did taper a little towards the end as his average came down from the high fifties to just over 50. But then Viv Richards was a man who never cared for records and personal milestones. Michal Holding famously said that if Richards was the kind who wanted to play for records, he would have held all of them. For all the stats minded he did finish with 8540 runs at over 50 with 24 hundreds in tests and 6721 runs in ODI's at an astounding average of 47 which ranks him among the greatest ever in both forms of the game.

Viv Richards in full flow was a treat for the eyes. His dashing approach and a regal presence unnerved the best of opponents. His swagger is legendary and his no holds barred riposte to fast bowling puts him right up there with the best. The King of the crease has no rivals when it comes to dominating attacks and any comparisons with Richards are useless as there has been and can only be one Viv Richards.

Tests need a fillip...

Is there an imminent danger being posed to the future of test cricket? Over the past year, cricket experts, commentators and the ICC have been stressing that the five day game is endangered and concrete steps need to be taken to prevent it from dying out. This is one of those rare issues where the views if the ICC and the experts have concurred and deserves to be discussed in some detail. The biggest factors contributing to the so called decline of tests include unequal and boring contests, dwindling audiences, lifeless tracks and the extraordinary rise of Twenty-20 cricket which has taken the cricketing world by storm.

In a recent article in Cricnfo, Sambit Bal stresses the need for the game to get a little more elitist and make it more captivating for the viewers by preventing grossly unequal and boring contests which often take away the charm of the game. Top flight test cricket seems to be restricted only to say 5 teams now with Pakistan, New Zealand and West Indies rebuilding and struggling through problems galore in selection and other criteria. Test cricket is a total contrast to other forms of the game and to most other sports as well. It is built on technique, patience, focus, sound strategy and further goes on to emphasize the necessity for a team to dominate consistently for long periods and not just a short span of overs which is the case in the slam bang version i.e. T-20. When there are contests between top teams and the weaker teams that are struggling to find their feet, undoubtedly, even the most hardcore cricket fan would struggle to sit through it.

Dwindling crowds for test matches the world over have created a huge concern for the administrators. Only Australia and England tend to regularly draw huge crowds for test matches whilst in most other countries including India, grounds are hardly filled even for major contests. This can be dealt with by staging the test matches in only the top cricket grounds of the country. Test matches in India staged at the Eden Gardens or in some of the bigger cities such as Bangalore and Chennai would be most likely to attract a good crowd whereas if the game is held in some of the lesser known centres, the audience is not a very cricket literate one and would surely choose to avoid a test match simply because they consider it a slow moving game and do not understand the nuances of the format. This is probably the first point that the administrators need to consider especially in India where there are umpteen grounds but only the ones in the bigger cities can truly attract a test cricket loving audience.

While ODI and T-20 cricket in particular has totally shifted the balance towards batsmen, test cricket albeit only just, still remains the format where there is a much closer contest between bat and ball. Lifeless and placid tracks worldwide coupled with rules loaded in favour of batsmen have shifted the balance in tests too. All through the 60's to the 90's, test cricket was enjoyed and contests were cherished because of the fact that tracks had some grass and bounce. Bowlers had the support they needed and this presented a much more even contest. Brilliant batsmen came up against the finest of bowlers on pitches that had a fair share of help for both parties and this resulted in some classic test cricket. The game revelled in its ability to produce mouth watering contests within contests, pitting great players against each other and the clashes made the matches all the more absorbing. With the tracks the world over getting all the more placid and dull, batsmen have a field day and the surfaces are turning into graveyards for the bowlers. A fine example of a good test match pitch can be the Australian grounds which offer a fair deal of assistance to both bat and ball throughout the five days and more often than not test matches held there produce results. The West Indian and sub continent pitches are quite the opposite with average scores of 500 being a normal occurrence. There is almost no hope of achieving a result on these tracks and no cricket lover would even like to catch these games on television let alone actually bothering to visit the stadium. Unless the pitches are well prepared to give the bowlers and the batsmen a fair advantage, there is no way contests can be made exciting enough for audiences the world over.

Perhaps the biggest threat for test cricket has come from the remarkable rise of T-20 cricket. This ultra short form of the game is fast and exciting to the modern viewer. Whilst it is true that it is extremely racy and has high skill levels, it does not allow for any focus on technique, concentration, strategy and lacks the sense of drama and theatre that are weaved into tests. The humongous money involved in T-20 has led many people to start feeling that players might opt for this simply due to the lure of mammon. While there is quite a possibility that many players might feel it is much better to make a fast buck by sticking to T-20, the vast majority still do believe that to truly be classified among the greats and to be recognized, it is paramount to perform in tests. Test cricket still does continue to explore all facets of a player's game and without doubt showcases his strengths and exposes his frailties the best of all formats of the game. There is definitely room for all three formats and the ICC, with good foresight, plan the future tours programme well to incorporate the right number of tests, odi's and T-20's.

There is surely a necessity for an official ICC test championship which allows for keener contests among the top 4-5 teams and brings out the best in them. This is in the pipeline and I sure hope something positive materializes soon enough. Test cricket has for years been a cricket lover's delight and has produced innumerable legends and fantastic contests all along. It is faced with its biggest challenge now and I am pretty sure, the strong foundation the game's oldest format is built on will stand it in good stead and help it tide through these turbulent times.