Monday, 8 November 2010

When he was king

Behold, Bad Bas, lost emperor of the game.

A wistful reverie awaits you there...
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4 comments:

elegantstroke said...

OB, if you were to compare Barry's game to some player in his time or some player in the current era (if there was one), who would say it is?

I presume he would be your all-time XI opener right? :)

8 November 2010 at 10:31
The Old Batsman said...

Elegant - yes he sure would...! Him and Boycott, just for laffs...

In terms of a comparison, on scoring rate, you'd have to say Sehwag, although Richards hit nine hundreds before lunch. Even in this era of attack, no-one seems to do that. He also scored 325 in a day on his own against an side including Dennis Lillee.

But it's a really interesting point, and I should blog on this, his technique wasn't really like any of today's players in that he stood with his feet very close together, had no trigger movement in the crease and played the ball late. He hit sixes but not loads of them, so really he shouldn't have scored at the rate he did. Either that, or the modern orthodoxy of power is missing something.

8 November 2010 at 10:51
Mark said...

It's a shame ESPN couldn't access the BBC archive.

There was a Gillette Cup match in 1972 - Hants v Lancashire when Richards got 129 out of 196 scored whilst he was at the crease. It was televised live, and even at the age of 9 I can remember it being very special - even the curmudgeonly Jim Laker said so on commentary at the time!

Nearest I can think of in the current era is Ricky Ponting, but with a touch more 'Mark Waugh-esque' elegance.

9 November 2010 at 05:21
Anonymous said...

how about Colin Milburn and Richards as an opening pair?

I have to point out that when he played for the Rest of the World v England in 1970 in the "Tests" that never were, he did nothing...not sure he passed 50, while Sobers, Pollock, Barlow, Lloyd and co all contributed to the fun.

9 November 2010 at 17:14

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