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Part three: Graham Gooch on the toughest competitors: Viv Richards owned every ground he walked out onto
Producer: Tanveer Gogada
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- Players/Officials : Viv Richards
Dec 01, 2015 Part three: Graham Gooch on the toughest competitors: Viv Richards owned every ground he walked out onto
Producer: Tanveer Gogada
Haan Ya Naa ऑस्ट्रेलिया और भारत के बीच WTC फ़ाइनल के पहले दिन से जुड़े सवालों पर संजय मांजरेकर का फ़ैसला | Jun 7, 2023
Match Day Haddin says Ashwin is one of the best bowlers going around and Manjrekar points out bowling first was not a bad decision from India | Jun 7, 2023
Hindi ऑस्ट्रेलिया और भारत के बीच ओवल में खेले जा रहे WTC फ़ाइनल के पहले दिन का लेखा जोखा संजय मांजरेकर के साथ | Jun 7, 2023
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Apr 22, 2018 Catch up with the latest from the County Championship, as Surrey's Ollie Pope makes a century at the Oval and Somerset secure victory
Jan 29, 2016 Part 11: Graham Gooch on his toughest competitors: Malcolm Marshall was the most intelligent quick bowler ever
Jan 26, 2016 Part ten: Graham Gooch on his toughest competitors: Dennis Lillee had tremendous stamina and the ability to adapt to any condition
Jan 19, 2016 Part nine: Graham Gooch on his toughest competitors: Shane Warne bowled the best flipper, and he always tried to psyche out batsme...
Jan 12, 2016 Part eight: Graham Gooch on his toughest competitors: Wasim Akram was effective both over and round the wicket and was very diffic...
Jan 5, 2016 Part seven: Graham Gooch on his toughest competitors: Alan Knott stood out for his glovework and footwork, and he was an iconic pl...
Dec 22, 2015 Part six: Graham Gooch on his toughest competitors: Martin Crowe's ability to transfer his weight at the crease made him a difficu...
Dec 12, 2015 Part 4: Graham Gooch on Sachin Tendulkar, who bore the crushing weight of expectation masterfully for over two decades
Dec 12, 2015 Part five: Graham Gooch on his toughest competitors: Allan Border was not eye-catching but he was uncompromising and focused on wi...
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His presence in the crease. if you ask me greatest batsman ever , i have to say viv richards. I never saw bradman bat , but he probably overhyped like babe ruth. He walked like a LION in the pitch and devoured everyone. I do not know anyone scared best bowlers but richards did. Abd can hit sixer now any position now but before Richards posess that skill. He lacked motivation for records because there was no one comparable to him at the time and everyone praising him so he lost interest in that aspect. Gavaskar, tendulkar sneaked past Richards on stats. He was an emperor in every sense in cricket pitch. Everyone there to serve richards with dollys and get spanked. Sehwag does same to bowler but he lacked the presence. One of great thing about richards is that no one knew what is his weakness was. Only way to get richards out was if he threw his wicket away. Lots of batsman wait out like lara and kallis, sachin when things go bad but richards on crease there is nothing bad.
In the final analysis it is very hard to rate where Viv ranks amongst the all-time great batsmen or cricketers.An average of 50.24 hardly reflected the true greatness of Viv .Viv was at equal ease on the seaming English pitches,the bouncy Australian tracks and turning pitches on the sub-continent.To score 291 at the Oval and average over 118 in 1976 in England,to average 96.50 in Australia in 1979-80 and average 0ver 70 in Pakistan in 1980 testify this.In his time Gavaskar of Greg Chappell marginally overshadowed Viv statistically but statistics hardly reflected Viv's true dominance.At his best Viv destroyed bowling like mowing the grass on a lawn .
What goes against Viv was he did not tackle the brunt of such a weak team as much as Brian Lara ,played on as treacherous pitches as Jack Hobbs and equal the longevity of Tendulkar .He also hardly proved his prowess against great spin bowling .However adding one day cricket to me Viv would rank 3rd ,behind Bradman and Hobbs.
Viv Richards pulverized bowling attacks more than any great batsmen in cricket history holding a cricket bat like an axe and strode to the crease with the magic aura of a great emperor .In full flow he often looked like an invincible army conquering territory after territory.He was so talented that if he wished he could have broken all the batting records.Viv posessed the power of a boxer ,the creative genius of a musical composer and the temperament of a soldier.No batsmen ever could turn the complexion of a match or win games as well as Viv Richards.He may not have had the statistical record of Tendulkar ,the technical correctness of Gavaskar and the elegance of Zaheer Abbas but would overshadow all of them in terms of impact created on the fate of a game.He also displayed contempt for genuine pace bowling more than any great batsmen including Bradman.
In his peak period from 1976-81 I rate Viv 2nd only to Bradman,averaging 86.2 in 1977-78 in Packer cricket and 60 overall.