Sir Viv Richards

Personal information

Full name

Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards

Born

7 March 1952 (age 65)
St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda

Nickname

Viv, Master Blaster

Height

5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)

Batting style

Right-handed

Bowling style

Right-arm medium/off-break

Role

Batsman

International information

National side

West Indies

Test debut (cap 151)

22 November 1974 v India

Last Test

8 August 1991 v England

ODI debut (cap 14)

7 June 1975 v Sri Lanka

Last ODI

27 May 1991 v England

Domestic team information

Years

Team

1990–1993

1976–1977

1974–1986

1971–1991

1971–1981

Career statistics

Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	121	187	507	500
Runs scored	8,540	6,721	36,212	16,995
Batting average	50.23	47.00	49.40	41.96
100s/50s	24/45	11/45	114/162	26/109
Top score	291	189*	322	189*
Balls bowled	5,170	5,644	23,226	12,214
Wickets	32	118	223	290
Bowling average	61.37	35.83	45.15	30.59
5 wickets in innings	0	2	1	3
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	2/17	6/41	5/88	6/24
Catches/stumpings	122/–	100/–	464/1	238/–

Source: cricketarchive.com, 18 August 2007

Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, KNH, OBE (born 7 March 1952), known as Viv Richards, is a former West Indian cricketer. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. Richards was voted one of the five Cricketers of the Century by a 100-member panel of experts in 2000, along with Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs and Shane Warne.

In one-day cricket, Richards was judged by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack to have played the best ODI innings of all time. In December 2002, he was chosen by Wisden as the greatest One Day International (ODI) batsman of all time, as well as the third greatest Test batsman of all time, after Sir Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar.

Overall, Richards scored 8,540 runs in 121 Test matches at an average of 50.23, including 24 centuries. As a captain, he won 27 of 50 Test matches and lost only 8. He also scored nearly 7,000 runs in One Day Internationals and more than 36,000 in first-class cricket. Knighted for his contributions to cricket, today Richards is an occasional cricket commentator and team mentor.

Richards was born to Malcolm and Gretel Richards in St. John's, Antigua, then part of the British Leeward Islands. He attended St. John's Boys School and then Antigua Grammar School on a scholarship.

Richards discovered cricket at a young age. His brothers, Mervyn and Donald, both played the game, representing Antigua as amateurs, and they encouraged him to play. The young Viv initially practiced with his father and Pat Evanson, a neighbour and family friend, who had captained the Antigua side.

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