More than just a one-day wonder

The Wisden Cricketersrsquo Almanack has named their greatest players of the last five decades to commemorate 50 years of OneDay International cricketVirat Kohli has been given the honour for the 2010s while Sri Lankan spin great Muttiah Muralitharan has been picked for the 2000s Sachin Tendulkar is rightly chosen as the man who dominated the 1990s while Kapil Dev gets Wisdenrsquos nod for the 1980sSir Vivian Richards is the bible of cricketrsquos chosen one for the first decadeWith 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 CupApart 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 Devrsquos 175 against Zimbabwe scored a year prior to second spotThen in 1987 Richards plundered a World Cup 181 against Sri Lanka at KarachiODI cricket was in its nascent years in the 1970s and Richards nicknamed Smokinrsquo Joe made the best use of the opportunities he got in the first decade of instant cricketIt 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 ChappellThe following English summer after slaying England for 829 runs in four Tests his form stayed on for the threematch Prudential series In Game One at Scarborough he smashed 119 not out as West Indies reached their 203run target in 41 overs In the next match at Lordrsquos he was last man out as West Indies set Tony Greigrsquos team 222 to win in 50 overs David Frith watched it and wrote in The Cricketer ldquoHe 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 Junerdquo 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 LeverBy the time the 1979 World Cup was held Richards was the most destructive batsman in the world a reputation built in Kerry Packerrsquos World Series CricketLike 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 538 the man of the match clearly was RichardsDesmond Haynes who was Richardsrsquos 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 ldquoTherersquos going to be a lot of people at Lordrsquos today It would be a good time to really turn it onrdquo And he did for West Indiesrsquo second World Cup titleThe Australian summer of 197980 saw the West Indies and England visit Down Under for three Tests each and a triangular series Richards played a leading role in West Indiesrsquo 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 2712 before Australia were restricted to 1918 Ian Chappell who played a few games in that series but not the Melbourne one thought about Superman while writing a manofthematch profile for a journal of the season called One Day Cricket Chappell decided to embellish his article with the lyrics of Jim Crocersquos song You Donrsquot Mess Around With Jim He wrote ldquoYou donrsquot tug on Supermanrsquos cape you donrsquot spit into the wind you donrsquot pull the mask off that Old Lone Ranger and you donrsquot mess around with VivrdquoCelebrated Australian writer Ray Robinson was as profound ldquoHis 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 legstump yorker from Jeff Thomson to the off boundaryrdquo he wroteRichards according to reports had taken a painkilling 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 ldquoI had an XRay in Melbourne and it disclosed a slight crack in the lower part of my back The pain however has been in the hiprdquo Richards told Australian Cricket magazineDespite 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 alltimemiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper