Viv was one of the greatest batting geniuses of all time who blended the agression of a boxer with the creativity of a musician ,charisma of a Hollywood actor and the temperament of a soldier.Statistically Sunil Gavaskar ,Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara overshadow Sir Viv but often figures hardly tell the true story who eclipsed all those greats as a match-winner.Although outwardly looking like hitting the ball hammer and tongs there was a unique technical aspect about Viv's batting who was not a mere slogger and had a clinical or subtle element to his batting.

Some of Viv's best innings were in Kerry Packer world series cricket when he overshadowed great batsmen like Barry Richards and Greg Chappell.As a one day batsmen I rate him the best of all as he was more innovative than even Tendulkar.Overall in test cricket lack of consistency and not being sufficiently tested in a crisis may just place Brian Lara ,Sobers or Tendulkar ahead by a whisker.

There has been no batsman who has dominated bowlers like Sir Viv. has done, period. He had amazing reflexes.