Wednesday 7 March 2012

Sir Viv at 60

Vivian Richards. The name still conjures great memories and images. Even watching him speak on the documentary Fire In Babylon which was televised free-to-air just a couple of weeks ago, he still commands attention and respect.

The West Indian side of the late 1970s was fearsome. Pace and aggression from the bowlers, power and aggression from the batsmen. Have you ever seen an aggressive wicket-keeper? Well Jeffrey Dujon was, somehow. Gordon Greenidge was brilliant. You wept for bowlers if he limped to the crease. Clive Lloyd and, more latterly, Carl Hooper were languidly destructive. The seemingly never-ending battery of hostile bowlers, from Andy Roberts and Colin Croft through Michael Holding, Joel Garner and the sublime Malcolm Marshall to Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose could frighten the life out of you when watching on TV some 4000 miles away.

But then there was Viv. Probably the most frightening of the lot, he was so much more. He was cool. He swaggered. He owned the game for 15 years. He was the one everybody wanted to be when the bat and ball came out at lunchtime at school, which in a very white Catholic school in North Yorkshire was quite something. He turns 60 years old today and still looks like he could do a decent job out in the middle.

His natural heir is Chris Gayle. Not as talented, but equally as laid-back, destructive and, above all, cool. Gayle is still not being picked by the West Indies, but Tino Best is. Maybe sorting that clear aberration would be the best way to honour the great man on this anniversary.

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