Leading SA’s rugby revolution
26 Dec 2011
What do Francois Hougaard, Bismarck du Plessis, Gio Aplon, Johann Sadie, Andries Bekker, Pat Lambie and Juan de Jongh all have in common?
They all have the X factor, something that sets them apart from the rest.
If the Springboks are to achieve consistent success against the world champion All Blacks over the next four years, they will have to change their conservative mindset and play an expansive game when the situation demands it.
These seven players can lead South Africa’s rugby revolution and take our game to the next level.
Click here to subscribe to print edition
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Also in the new issue:
– Many junior players have failed to make the transition to senior rugby over the years because of flaws in the Baby Boks set-up, but the situation seems to be improving
– Why rugby is ripe for a global rebel league
– SA Rugby magazine reveals how Solly Tyibilika wasn’t the only black player to be mismanaged over the past four years and how South Africa has regressed with regard to transformation at the highest levels
– Saracens flyhalf Derick Hougaard on suffering from depression, the ‘soul destroying’ experience of Kamp Staaldraad, and his desire to force his way back into Bok contention
– England’s shambolic World Cup campaign left Martin Johnson with no choice but to resign
– Victor Matfield speaks to SA Rugby magazine about his post-retirement plans, why players should be treated like adults, and his second-row partnership with Bakkies Botha
– Your ultimate guide to the 2012 Super Rugby season: Everything you need to know about the 15 teams
770 Comments
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3 Jan 2012, 18:52 pm
@IAAS-489:
I saw a replay of the interview just now.
Interesting that he rated Wasim Akram as the best quick bowler he ever faced and that he rated Lara as better than Sachin. He also rated Warne as the best spinner he faced but that was probably an easy call to make.
He also seems a genuine humble and pleasant bloke who has already given a helluva lot of money back to the game and communities through the JK foundation.
3 Jan 2012, 18:55 pm
I see that the proteas are still a white boys club controlled by a new nazi leader in the form of Gary Kirsten.Piss-poor rudolph just got shafted down the batting order when obviously,in the form of duminy,there is a more talented and on form batsman available.
3 Jan 2012, 18:57 pm
@au revoir mon tout noirs, au revoir…-499:
He is having a go at Kallis (I think)
3 Jan 2012, 18:58 pm
just back from a great day at Newlands under the oaks….very cool…
3 Jan 2012, 18:58 pm
I see that the proteas are still a white boys club controlled by a new nazi leader in the form of Gary Kirsten.Piss-poor rudolph just got shafted down the
batting order when obviously,in the form of duminy,there is a more talented and on form batsman available.
3 Jan 2012, 18:58 pm
Ja let’s have a go at Biff.
3 Jan 2012, 18:59 pm
I see that the proteas are still a white boys club controlled by a new nazi leader in the form of Gary Kirsten.rudolph just got shafted down the
batting order when obviously,in the form of duminy,there is a more talented and on form batsman available.
3 Jan 2012, 19:00 pm
@Robzim-501:
And that Steve Waugh – who I admire greatly – said that on thorough analysis they couldn’t find a weakness in his game.
3 Jan 2012, 19:02 pm
Ja ja we saw it the first time.
3 Jan 2012, 19:04 pm
Duplicate mvk
Ugh
3 Jan 2012, 19:10 pm
its still a game for old f’arts to knit pick and natter about between snorts on the old brown sherry or gin and tonic with their toffee noses and pinkies stuck up high in the air while roasting their rhubarb coloured rumps out in the midday sun, hardly classified as a sport, just about beats croquet at the adrenaline enthusiasm excitement stakes
3 Jan 2012, 19:11 pm
@IAAS-508:
Steve and the rest of the Australian cricketing braintrust should have given Skopskiet a call
3 Jan 2012, 19:13 pm
Doing the same oke every night of the week in your line of work could also be construed as duplication ne prawny?
3 Jan 2012, 19:15 pm
@ashampoopaloo-511:
3 Jan 2012, 19:18 pm
Yeeesss. You sooooo right.
I bet I make way more money than you.
3 Jan 2012, 19:26 pm
I believe that England will dominate worl cricket for the next five years.until the proteas get rid of the white boys club they will not get close to the English.
3 Jan 2012, 19:27 pm
@mvk-513:
Notice how excited it gets about hard-ons. Scarey.
3 Jan 2012, 19:49 pm
mvk = mo3rse f*kken k*nt
At least he knows what he is. I don’t bother reading its posts anymore, unless I’m in the mood to troll the trolls
3 Jan 2012, 19:54 pm
@Robzim-503:
yes i know.
but i want him to tear smith a new one as well.
there’s the smell of a fbc in the cricket air.
3 Jan 2012, 19:58 pm
I see moerse ****** kont has a new buddy!
3 Jan 2012, 20:01 pm
Mvk meet your new nazi best friend!
3 Jan 2012, 20:06 pm
Helluvathing this… Many kgs of meat washed down with copious amounts of beer over the last coupla weeks… In the Persian Gulf too… So much for booze control in these here parts of our happy planet….
But a Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to all Keolings… Even the sheepshaggers…
Bring on the rugger and may 2012 be a better year than 2011…
As they say….As-Salamu `alaykumu…
3 Jan 2012, 20:07 pm
Lol we can sweat in Afrikaans on this site…stellar!
test:
****** moer kont japanese ******** nigerian
3 Jan 2012, 20:08 pm
test 2:
m@nkey moer kont Japanese dutchm@n Nigerian
3 Jan 2012, 20:09 pm
Bizarre….
3 Jan 2012, 20:13 pm
Yay sasori behave.
I am watching a budding romance unfold here.
Arch nazi-hater vs the supreme nazi.
3 Jan 2012, 20:16 pm
no good can come of this…
3 Jan 2012, 20:16 pm
You know what they say, opposites attract. But then again MVK will nail anything with 2 legs and a pulse.
Sorry for the profanity. I’m just amazed Afrikaans swearing isn’t censored but the word for an animal is…
3 Jan 2012, 20:17 pm
Match made in heaven
3 Jan 2012, 20:18 pm
..or 4 legs for that matter
3 Jan 2012, 20:19 pm
..or without a pulse probably.
3 Jan 2012, 20:23 pm
Anything goes!
3 Jan 2012, 20:35 pm
@Robzim-488:
yeah i think thats all true, his record cannot be beating and got a very sensible head, but we;ve had more naturally talented strikers of the ball. pollock and richards were alot better i think, but then again look at the difference between mark and steve waugh, the latter all mental, even cutback on some of his flashier shots.
@David-493:
lol, might have been the windies u right, probably still dunno what day of the week it is, unbelievable, cant remember seeing a more ferocious spell from any sa fast bowler since readmission, maybe donald on atherton. wonder why kallis stopped the bowling part, he saunters in for most of his career, but when he wants to can really let rip.
3 Jan 2012, 20:40 pm
dunno who is going to be the new Bok rugby coach, but could be a v interesting team picked this year with a whole bunch moving on. not sure its going to be all roses, but at least bismarck will start, which will straightaway boost the Boks by 20%.
3 Jan 2012, 20:42 pm
@cab-533:
He’s cut back on his bowling quite a bit or should I say is being better managed as his primary role is that of a batsman.
He is bowling shorter spells and at the age of 35 or so is still pushing them through at 140+.
And still scoring big tons.
3 Jan 2012, 20:43 pm
Well, Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh he aint.
3 Jan 2012, 20:48 pm
@IAAS-535:
yes i suppose, still bowling above 140, **** thats not bad, couple year ago he was definitely medium pace in 130s i think.
@Dawn-536:
i reckon he was as quick as them for about 6 months of his career, but yeah he dont have that height, those windian buggers are born fastbowlers, great fast bowling attack ever was windian side of 80s, easily. And your man Gale has got one sweet eye on him for a cricket ball, but too much ganja he puffs, too laidback to be a great today.
3 Jan 2012, 21:07 pm
Leave the coolest guy in cricket alone.
He be ok.
3 Jan 2012, 21:28 pm
‘have you heard from Johannesburg’ documentary on the creation and dismantling of apartheid on SABC 2 , and another documentary about the role of church in missionary related anti apartheid movement on SABC 1 – watch them..
Yip opposite sides of the identically equal indoctrinated racist coin attracting in ironic like for like embrace
Die groot wit kokkorot saam met sy teenoorgestelde moedelose moegoe mede moddermuis maat in die selle struik sielige siekte wat so groot gatgabbas is dat hulle groot manslike dapperheid spul oor na hulle mede struid teen n eensame vreedsame vrou wys net hoe swaar die struid van rasistiese haat en slegte menslikheid oorweeg hulle identiese siek skokkende skildige skaamtes
3 Jan 2012, 21:31 pm
In response to post 19 …
So you say SA have beaten the AB’s more times during Henry’s reign that any other country…hmmm..not too sure about tat, yes, SA have beaten the AB’s but I think the record of who beat whom the most still sits with the AB’s over SA.
Up to 1996 (the start of the professional era) the record was SA 21 – AB’s 18, in the 39 games since then it is – AB’s 27 – SA 12…mighty impressive record I would say almost 3 to 1. But here is the rub, SA will always be a hard team to beat for any AB team but the AB’s do have the wood on SA – what 2012 brings we’ll have to wait and see but I would imagine it will be same old same old, yet SA have great new players around it is just that your coaching staff dont measure up. Sure if they ever do, it will be a mighty battle against your greatest foe. Anyway…let’s see what happens.
3 Jan 2012, 21:57 pm
@JohnPaul-540: uhm…..nz edukashin?
the boks see have beaten nz see more times than any other country see during teds 8 yrs in charge see.
clue: how many tests did the abs lose whilst ted was in charge?
another clue: how many of those losses were to the boks?
vok you kiwis take yourselves seriously which is hard to understand when you rigged a world cup to feel better about yourselves.
now wake up son, this is not the place to show your lack of brainpower, you will get torn to pieces.
p.s. 2012 brings the argies and a bit more travel for your laddies so climb out of yer a s s and lets see how it goes ok?
3 Jan 2012, 22:03 pm
yeah ABs are a great side, but if the bokke had picked the right players, i still reckon we could have taken them….sounds like sour grapes, but i’m pretty happy the ABs won it since they probably deserve it for years and all, but i still reckon A first choice Bok side could have given them an almighty going over in dunedin nogal.
3 Jan 2012, 22:23 pm
@JohnPaul-540: ok bud, i take back my harsh words.
you are clearly just not very bright.
have a pleasant lifewandering around in a daze but do try to suck the occasional poethklap sent your way regardless if you have no clue why ok?
cheers.
3 Jan 2012, 22:35 pm
@Robzim-488: I’d have to support your view on JK Rob((and a fine 2012 to you too before I forget). JK is nowhere near done and dusted. I’d put money on more records being broken from the man. He is pure genius with the bat and none too shabby with the ball. I’ve watched some great cricketers in my time but few top Mr Kallis. In fact; none that I can think of. For the record, he has the second highest number of sixes in Test matches, behind a Mr Gillcrest I believe(who has since retired) . His record is likely to be broken by the same gent many are rubbishing. Some people?
4 Jan 2012, 00:13 am
@ashampoopaloo-539:
baie snaaks skop, baie snaaks.
love your work hehehe
@rangerman-541:
@rangerman-543:
its like.. duh uh..?..
silly keewees, they can be so far up their own arsses somtimes that they dont even see compliments and mutual respect when its given.
love to beat them… and cannot stand to see the boks lose to any team other than them… they bring a moer of good game… boks vs ab’s… nothing like it.
anyway, the last thing i want is another kiwi going mental.
@JohnPaul-540:
i mean no offense jp, just a bit of wire pulling. feel fre to pull mine.
i’m sure you figured out what i in fact meant by now, right?
as ranger’s pointed out, in the last eight years the boks have beaten the all blacks the most of any other country and have in fact beaten them more times than the rest of the world put together.
this of course says a lot about the ab’s, but it also says something about the boks. here’s to a helluva good rivalry.
cheers.
4 Jan 2012, 05:16 am
During the Aussie -India test lunch-break I read with quite some amusement and annoying hilarity some of the cricket posts from about 450 forward. Nothing there in the distortions, and prop-ups and continuing delusions surprise me though.
Like grave-diggers, after a recent burial, coming back for the heirlooms of the dead they resurrect a dead and buried cricket topic of supposed “greatness” of the personification of a phlegmatic( do they know it stems from phlegm) batsman.
In the absence of the facts and truth from the genuine cognoscenti and connoisseur of sport the distortions, prop-ups and lies come across as compelling, but that is only in the absence of that truth which I will ensure is not, in fact, absent.
Are these fools above ‘experts’ or impostors, deserving of a newly coined word such as ‘muck-perts’?
I leave you to make that decision after I give you the unquestionable brilliance of my referred and preferred experts and greats of this code and in their own words and cogently supported by their wealthy experiences.
4 Jan 2012, 05:41 am
Before I do that, however, let me expose some of the easy prop-ups that seemingly bolster the original repetition of a mere commentator’s comment.
What was on the 9/12/11 in post 50 “… Smith and the greatest cricketer in SA’s history .. ” has now been modified to this “Kallis is our best test cricketer ever- nobody comes even close” in post 488 of 3/1/12.
Reminds me stunningly of all the various versions or modifications some ‘holy’ books have experienced to prop-up weak, unworthy and faulty notions, ideas and more.
Thus one sees that “greatest cricketer”(weak ODI and T20 stats) has not only become “best” but also “test cricketer” to deceitfully remove the weak ODI annd T20 non-supporting stats and the high standards really needed for use of the term “greatest”.
But this truth I put on the table is merely to expose the inherent distortion, dishonesty and such of the blind but not-thinking-matters-through hero-worshipper.
From here I will let the cognoscenti do their talking.
4 Jan 2012, 06:11 am
In case you so easily miss it, this article by Vice, ridicules and exposes the irony of APARTHEID:
The bonafide great who never was – the TITLE
Apartheid prevented Barry Richards from becoming a batting superstar, the next Bradman, even.- the sub-title
{{ To Donald Bradman, he was as good as Jack Hobbs or Len Hutton. To John Arlott, he was “a batsman of staggering talent”. To many who played with and against him, he was the most complete batsman they ever saw. To Robin Jackman, in his days as the heart of the Surrey attack, he was a reason to think about tennis.
“When the fixtures came out at the beginning of the season, one thing we always used to look at was whether we were playing Hampshire over the Wimbledon fortnight,” Jackman said. “Because if we were, there was very little chance that Barry would be playing. He managed to find a groin injury when Wimbledon was on.”
Along with Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards was the bonafide great who never was. Four Tests was all he had to prove himself before apartheid sentenced South Africa to 22 years of isolation. Richards, tall, wristy, implacable, possessed of feline grace and eyesight, took his chance, scoring 508 runs at 72.57 against the 1969-70 Australians. A surprise? Hardly. “Even before that series, everybody knew he was going to be a batting genius,” said Ali Bacher, South Africa’s captain in that famous rubber.
Richards scored a century before lunch nine times in his first-class career. That might have been 10 had Bacher not been bowled around his legs by Alan Connolly shortly before the interval on the first day against Australia at Kingsmead in 1970 as he tried to fangle a single to give the tyro the strike.
But Richards duly reached three figures in the first over after lunch, and he went on to score 140 in his most celebrated innings. In the first hour of that second session – perhaps the most storied 60 minutes in South Africa’s cricket history – Richards shared 103 runs with Pollock, who made 274, a monument that stood as the highest Test innings by a South African until 1999. “I don’t think this country has ever again seen batting like we saw that day,” Bacher said.
Besides batting up a storm, Richards proved the keenness of his cricketing brain by demystifying the bowling of Johnny Gleeson, the Australian spinner who was able to deliver offbreaks and legbreaks with no discernible change in his action.
“Whenever one of our Test batsmen came in during the Aussies’ matches against the provincial teams on that tour and Gleeson was bowling, he was immediately taken off,” Bacher said. “We never got a chance to see him before the series.” All would be revealed in the first Test in Cape Town.
“Trevor Goddard got out, and I came in, and immediately Gleeson was brought on from the Wynberg end. For the first two overs he made me look like a clown. When I thought it was the offbreak, it was the legbreak; when I was sure it was the legbreak, it was the offbreak.”
Bacher resolved to plonk his front foot down the pitch and heave Gleason over midwicket, which served him well enough in his innings of 57.
“That night we had a team meeting, and Barry told us how to play him. He said if we could see a lot of fingers on top of the ball, it was the offbreak. If we could only see the thumb and one finger, it was the legbreak. He took one look at him and worked him out, and for the rest of the series he ran down the wicket to Gleeson. The rest of us were still a bit wary – even Graeme Pollock played him from the crease – but Barry went after him.”
Gleeson took 19 wickets in that series – second among the Australians only to Connolly’s 20 – and his bag included the scalps of Goddard, Bacher, Pollock, Eddie Barlow and Lee Irvine. But not once did he dismiss Richards.
By the time Richards was done with first-class cricket, he owned 28,358 runs, 80 centuries and an average of 54.74 from 339 matches. If English bowlers didn’t know what was about to hit them when he arrived to play for Hampshire in 1968, they were fully appraised by the end of that summer. Richards topped the first-class run-scoring charts with 2395 at 47.90. In 10 years with Hampshire, he went past 1000 runs in all but one. He passed that milestone in 15 seasons all told.
Richards averaged 109.86 in the 1970-71 Sheffield Shield, in which he played for South Australia and became only the second man after Bradman to register a century against all opponents. Against Western Australia he scored 325 of his 356 – 198 in boundaries – in a single day against an attack that bristled with the varying threats posed by Graham McKenzie, Dennis Lillee, Tony Lock, Tony Mann, John Inverarity and Ian Brayshaw. At the WACA!
Impressive though those numbers are, the sum of Richards added up to much more than his parts. “He was technically perfect, but he still had the ability to really hurt you, whereas others who were technically very good but not as good as Barry – say a Boycott – you never felt were going to hurt you that much,” Jackman said. “They’d wear you down, hour after hour. But Barry could really turn it on when he felt like it. Sometimes he did it just because he felt like it.”
As a fast bowler for Western Province and then Rhodesia, as well as for Surrey, Jackman crossed swords with Richards on the county circuit as well as in South Africa’s Currie Cup.
“I used to regard it as an achievement if I bowled a maiden to him; that was my ultimate,” Jackman said. “Most of the time when I bowled to him, I’d have the new ball and he’d be opening the batting. Of course you’d have the right number of catchers, and there were some gaps in the field. So if you got through a few overs to him with and he hadn’t really scored, and you bowled a maiden to him, you felt like you were doing really well.”
Praise for Richards isn’t hard to come by. What sets Jackman’s words apart is that he was the most successful bowler in the game against the South African. In their 25 first-class matches together, Jackman dismissed Richards 16 times. John Shepherd, the Barbados-born former Rhodesian, Gloucestershire and Kent seamer, is second on the list with 13, also in 25 matches. In county cricket exclusively, John Snow, the former Sussex and Warwickshire spearhead, was Richards’ most lethal opponent, taking his wicket 10 times in 20 games.
Former Transvaal left-arm fast bowler Don Mackay-Coghill, one of the more successful South Africans against Richards, with eight first-class dismissals, had a habit of welcoming him to the crease by reminding him of the score in their personal duel: “Good morning, Barry. Six times now.”
But it’s the legends in which Richards was the good guy in the white hat that are better known. The story of him turning his bat sideways to play out an over with the edge – and that with a bat whose edges were much thinner than those of modern bats – is among the few South African cricket tales to have lived on into this era. He is also known to have imagined the ground as the face of a vast clock and hit six fours in an over, each of them scooting to a different part of the boundary in clockwise order.
Jackman: “When he played well, he didn’t necessarily play better on one day than another. You were just very happy when you got him out. He was simply a fabulous batsman. He and Gordon Greenidge made a formidable opening pair, and it wasn’t often you got an early breakthrough against Hampshire.”
After he retired, Richards coached South Australia to a Sheffield Shield final before becoming Queensland’s chief executive. They won the Sheffield Shield for the first time in their history on his watch. Richards has served as president of Hampshire and dabbled in international coaching on the Asian subcontinent.
All of which may make being Richards seem like the best job in the world. Not so, sometimes. He has known the searing pain of a son committing suicide, as well as the debilitating disintegration of a lengthy marriage. His truncated Test career “really hurts him”, said Jackman, who has spent time with Richards as a commentator. “When you’re that talented you want the world to see it, not a few guys watching at Southampton.” The fact that he fell 20 short of 100 first-class centuries is another bleak point, particularly as he had a reputation in county games for losing focus after sating himself with runs. Too many 70s and 80s that should have been converted were marooned in double figures. Astonishingly for so poised a player, he suffered with flat feet.
But the world according to cricket won’t remember Barry Richards for much of that. Instead, he will always be the man who might have been. }}
How many are rated higher than Bradman as a great cricketer and how many are rated higher than Arlott as a connoisseur and cognoscenti of cricket commentary?
Whose words hold more importance with me? The fools above or the greats quoted here?
4 Jan 2012, 06:36 am
In my responses on the 10/12/11 I made the claim that it is never just about pure statistics and another great Indian writer and connoisseur feels more strongly about that smaal matter too as shown in his article:
Much more than the numbers – Title
Barry Richards hardly got any opportunities to show his talent on the international stage, but he still managed to prove how great a batsman he – sub-title
S Rajesh
(( The biggest compliment to Barry Richards, in the context of the Legends of Cricket series, is the fact that he finds a place in this elite list despite having played a mere four Test matches. In those four Tests – all in a home series against Australia – Richards gave more than a glimpse of just what international world cricket was missing, but his reputation as one of the very best batsmen to ever play the game was built mostly on his exploits in first-class matches – where he played mainly for Hampshire, Natal and South Australia – and, of course, in Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. Richards finished with a first-class tally of 28,358 runs, 80 centuries and an average of 54.74, but even these numbers don’t do full justice to the sort of batsman he was. Here’s a sample of some of his first-class achievements:
• Between 1968 and 1976, when Richards played in the English county championship for Hampshire, his average in the competition was in the top 20 in each season. During this period he scored 15,607 first-class runs for the county at an average of 50.51.
• Three times he carried his bat through a completed innings in first-class cricket, including an instance for Hampshire against Nottinghamshire in 1974, when he scored an unbeaten 225 out of a team total of only 344.
• His highest first-class score of 356 came in 1970-71 for South Australia against Western Australia, a team whose bowling attack included Dennis Lillee, Graham McKenzie and Tony Lock. Of the 356, 325 came in one day, off a mere 322 balls, as Richards slammed 44 fours and a six. Only five players had scored more than 325 in a day in first-class cricket anywhere in the world, and Richards became the third batsman to score 300 in a day in Australian first-class history.
• Nine times he scored a century before lunch; five of those were made on the first day of the match.
• During his time with Natal, he scored four centuries in a season four times.
And then, of course, there were Richards’ classy performances in World Series Cricket. His knocks in first-class cricket had made him a much sought-after name, and the deal was clinched when he went to Perth to play league cricket for Midland-Guildford in the 1976-77 season. As he confirmed later, money wasn’t the main reason he signed on the dotted line: “The money was only incidental to a last opportunity to play in the company of world-class cricketers again.”
In the first of the three Supertests he played that season for WSC World XI, in Sydney, Richards got starts in both innings but couldn’t convert them into huge scores, scoring 57 and 48. Then came a truly magnificent display in the second match, which justified all the hype. Opening the innings with his Hampshire team-mate Gordon Greenidge, Richards scored a wonderful 207, adding 234 for the opening wicket before Greenidge was forced to retire hurt. That brought the other great Richards, Viv, to the wicket, and for the next few hours the Australian bowlers didn’t know what hit them. Viv was generally a more destructive batsman, but on this day Barry outshone him, scoring 93 in the next 90 minutes, even as Viv made only 41. When Barry finally fell, the scoreboard read 369 for 1 in 60 eight-ball overs.
In the next Supertest, Barry made a half-century in the first innings but fell for a duck in the second as WSC World XI, chasing 272 for victory, fell 41 runs short. He finished the three matches with an aggregate of 388 runs in five innings, second only to Viv’s 502. (Click here for more details.)
In the next season there was another Richards special, this time in the final of the World Series Supertests: in a tense, low-scoring game, where neither team had scored more than 219, WSC World XI needed to score 224 in the fourth innings. Richards stamped his presence on the chase with an outstanding unbeaten 101; the next-highest score from one of his team-mates in either innings was 44. At 84 for 4 the Australians had a slight edge, but Richards took on Dennis Lillee and Gary Gilmour and ultimately led his team to a five-wicket win.
Overall Barry Richards played only five Supertests, but he clearly left his mark – in eight innings he scored two hundreds and two fifties and averaged almost 80, which was easily the highest. Since he wasn’t from Australia or West Indies he didn’t play as many matches as the others, but that’s hardly his fault.
Performance of top batsmen in World Series Cricket
Batsman
Team
Matches
Innings
Runs
100
50
Average
Barry Richards
World XI
5
8
554
2
2
79.14
Vivian Richards
West Indies and World XI
14
25
1281
4
4
55.69
Greg Chappell
Australia
14
26
1415
5
4
56.60
David Hookes
Australia
12
22
769
1
7
38.45
Clive Lloyd
West Indies and World XI
13
21
683
1
3
37.94
Gordon Greenidge
West Indies and World XI
13
23
754
1
4
35.90
Ian Chappell
Australia
14
27
893
1
5
35.72
However, in the one-dayers, called the International Cup ODIs, Richards wasn’t as successful, averaging less than 24 and scoring only two half-centuries in 19 innings. As the table below shows, though, most of the other top players didn’t do much better either.
How the major batsmen fared in the International Cup ODIs
Batsman
Matches
Runs
Average
100s/ 50s
Gordon Greenidge
24
694
36.53
0/ 6
Greg Chappell
24
705
30.65
0/ 3
Ian Chappell
21
456
25.33
0/ 2
Clive Lloyd
24
423
24.88
0/ 3
Barry Richards
19
455
23.95
0/ 2
Viv Richards
25
472
23.60
0/ 4
Zaheer Abbas
14
266
20.46
0/ 1
And then, of course, there was the small matter of his Test record. Richards got only seven innings to prove his class in Test cricket, but he did a pretty good job of utilising those chances. His opponents in all those four Tests were Australia, who came into the series having won their two previous ones, against West Indies at home and India in India. In South Africa, though, they were no match for the home team, and Richards did his bit to vanquish the visitors. Against a bowling attack that included Garth McKenzie, Alan Connolly and John Gleeson, Richards scored 508 runs at an average of 72.57. Only Graeme Pollock made more runs – he topped the averages with 517 runs at 73.85.
Richards scored only 29 in his first Test innings, in Cape Town, but that was to be his lowest score, as he went from strength to strength in his next three matches. His best innings of the series came in the next Test, in Durban, when he scored an outstanding 140 off a mere 164 balls, completely dominating the Australians. Just how unstoppable he was is apparent from the fact that out of a lunchtime score of 126 for 2 on the first day, Richards’ contribution was an unbeaten 94. Six more runs would have made him the fourth batsman at the time, and the fifth overall, to score a century before lunch on the first day of a Test. After lunch the South African fans were treated to some of the best strokeplay seen in the country: Richards and Pollock creamed 103 runs in the hour after the break, before Richards fell for 140. Pollock went on to score 274, and the Australians were crushed by an innings and 129 runs.
In the next Test, Richards scored 65 and 35, before finishing off the series with knocks of 81 and 126; South Africa swept both Tests by more than 300 runs. That series could have kickstarted a phenomenal Test career. Unfortunately for cricket, South Africa’s isolation meant Richards joined a select band of players to have scored a century in their last Test match. }}
What better substantiation or motivation of a case can one ask for than from this scribe?
4 Jan 2012, 07:08 am
And then the GREAT Richards gives his greats and who am I or you louts to argue against his experience in this field?
He surely would have been a Sir Richards too if your herrenvolk was not so ‘verkrampt’ enough to take S.A. out of the Commonwealth and convert it into the odious apartheid republic that gave you all so many,many benefits which you now vehemently try to deny.
Barry Richrds – in his own words:
‘Batting should entertain’
In July’s issue of Wisden Asia Cricket, Barry Richards talks about what goes into the making of a great batsman, and his nominees for the finest exponents of the craft. Excerpts:
{{ On what makes a good batsman
I suppose everybody has their own definition. There are those who prefer the Geoff Boycotts and the Sunny Gavaskars – batsmen with a great defence, who wear down bowlers. My definition is a bit different – to me it’s about domination and being able to assert yourself in a reasonably good time. This requires skill, obviously, and it requires precise footwork and the ability to simplify things. To me it’s not about an endless procession of letting balls go to see what the bounce is like, what the weather’s like and so on.
…Someone like Sachin [Tendulkar], he’s got enormous skill, he’s got a simple technique, he’s not complicated with his shot-making, and he’s got belief in his own ability. He has all the constituents of a good batsman.
…I think the ability to analyse your game and overcome your shortcomings is very important. You don’t always have to be brilliant, but if you have a deficiency, you have to develop the ability to not get out because of it. That requires practice, skill, dedication and all the other things that everybody who is at the very top of his field requires.
On the batsmen he considers ‘great’
Garry Sobers, Graeme Pollock, Viv Richards. And Sachin Tendulkar. I think Brian Lara has got the skill to be a great, but whether he has got the drive I am not sure. He is up and down. To me, someone like Sachin is more consistent and really wants it more. He’s a more complete package. In my lifetime nobody springs to mind apart from these names.
…When I think of Graeme, I think of timing and domination. The sheer domination of the man – not just the high volume of runs, but also the speed at which he got them – was incredible. He hit the gaps better than any player I have seen in my life, including Sachin. I mean, you might as well have had stones as fielders – hit the stone, you get nothing; miss the stone, you get four.
I never saw bowlers containing Graeme. I remember he once got a 124 at the Wanderers in 1975-76 and even Dennis Lillee (playing for the International Wanderers) was being taken for six runs an over. Graeme didn’t look like he was taking a risk, but every over, relentlessly, he’d whack a four somewhere. They said he didn’t play the bouncer very well, and he probably didn’t, but he would find a way to get a four. If nothing, he had that little short-arm jab over midwicket.
…Garry was more a back-foot player. He was not quite as tall as Graeme, and he played the short ball much better than Graeme ever did. Garry was all flourish, and with that extravagant back-lift he used to just power the ball away. He’d back himself in all situations, in all conditions. He had this great ability to play the ball late, to be able to adjust if it spun or swung away from him. And he had great wrists. Graeme was much more of a through-the-line hitter; Garry was more flourish with the wrists. You could think of Graeme as a Matthew Hayden, but a much better timer. Sachin is also like Graeme in terms of those short-arm punches. Garry was more a Lara type.
…Viv was awesome; at times you just couldn’t bowl to him. During World Series Cricket (WSC) he was at his peak, and I was on the decline, getting towards my middle-30s, and he played some fantastic knocks against some of the world’s quickest bowlers.
…Viv used to swagger. He used to do it on purpose. It was all that body language on the field working for him. When I think of Viv Richards, I think of arrogance at the crease. That was his way of dominating the bowler. His confrontations with Lillee during WSC were fantastic. Both used to bristle with belief in their own ability. It was a great contest. Very fascinating.
On modern cricket
…All you have to do on a lot of surfaces [these days] is hit through the line. I mean, on some of the pitches you have to be a blind man to miss the ball. You very rarely see the ball seaming; you very seldom see it swinging. The only time you see severe swing nowadays is reverse swing, though that could be because of the ball manufacturers.
I really don’t mind seeing a low-scoring game once in a while – a 110- or 120-game – if there is quality bowling on view. I fear for the general status of bowlers. You’ve got half-a-dozen quality bowlers at the moment, but if you took them out of world cricket there wouldn’t be much left.
What also worries me is the increased weightage to stats and figures nowadays. They don’t tell the full story. Adam Gilchrist, for example, doesn’t get the kudos as a batsman that some of the others do, and yet to me he has got an entertainment value and that’s what’s counts. How do you laud a chap like Gilchrist who encourages so many kids to play the game, so many people to be interested in the game, but his [one-day] average is only 34? On the other hand, you get somebody who’s bored the pants off the people, driven them away from grounds, little kids wouldn’t go near him and he’s averaging much higher.
…I don’t really know how players wield the heavy bats they use these days. And it makes you think about the slowness of the tracks. I just couldn’t think of anybody, even Viv, hooking Lillee and [Jeff] Thomson with a three-pound bat. I used a two-seven. I suppose someone like Sachin, since he is short and he holds it right near the bottom, has more ability to manipulate it. I’m sure Gilchrist couldn’t use a three-pounder with his grip, high on the handle. I think the trend started because of the wickets in the subcontinent, which are not quick enough; the batsman needs to generate the pace on the ball himself. It’s also because the guys train more nowadays and are stronger.
…You also don’t see too many horizontals [horizontal bat shots], which is a pity because it’s a very exciting part of the game. }}
He names all the players I consider ‘great’ except that I have him high in my top 6 list too.
NOTE THESE WORDS OF THE GREAT RICHARDS, BARRY:
” In my lifetime nobody springs to mind apart from these names. ”
Remember Richards is alive and well, somewhere in the Southern Cape area and permanently in S.Africa.
Since I am flying out in a couple of days I am not interested in your queries. Address them to the likes of Bradman, Arlott, Tice, Ramesh and Richards whether they are dead or alive.
This first week of cricket in 2012 seems to be for the golden oldies. All that is needed now is for Tendulkar, Dravid, Sanga., Samara. and Jayawa. to score anywhere between 150 and 300 runs.
I will surely miss some of that.
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