Vivian Richards

Sir Viv Richards

Personal information
Full name	Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards
Born	(1952-03-07) 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	Glamorgan
1976–1977	Queensland
1974–1986	Somerset
1971–1991	Leeward Islands
1971–1981	Combined Islands
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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