The Sean
Cricketer Of The Year
Apologies for the delay again, it's been a really busy week, but here we go again with your (real) choice of the number 8 cricketer of all time...
8.
Sir Viv Richards | Cricket Players and Officials | Cricinfo.com
Nominated by 82% of voters - highest ranking no.3
Brutal, dominant, arrogant, masterful - Viv Richards was all of these things and so much more. In an era of so many truly great batsmen - the likes of Gavaskar, Chappell, Border and Miandad were in their pomp during Viv's career - it says something about the man they called the Master Blaster that he is almost without exception acknowledged as the best. His pure numbers, outstanding as they are, don't necessarily outstrip his contemporaries, but the sheer havoc he wreaked over bowling attacks worldwide for nearly two decades speaks volumes for his extraordinary power to utterly demoralise an entire opposition team off his own bat and turn a cricket match on its head in a matter of hours. When Viv was on song he was quite simply unstoppable - both with the bat and in the field. One of the most outstanding all-round fieldsmen of all time, he is surely one of a very small group of players who have turned the course of a major match (the 1975 World Cup Final against Australia) purely through his fielding alone. When he was selected by Wisden as one of the Five Cricketers of the 20th Century, there were few dissenting voices.
Richards announced himself to the world in 1976 with his then-record year of 1,710 runs at an average of 90, including two magnificent double centuries in England, which invited comparisons with Bradman. From the end of that tour he was by common consent the world's best batsman, and was rarely if ever considered otherwise for the next decade or more. In his first season of World Series Cricket, Richards made 862 runs in six "Tests" while over four series against Australia, England and Pakistan between 1979-81 he averaged 77. As the 1980s wore on he rarely scored in such consistently heavy quantities, but rather seemed to save himself for producing his best on the big occasion or when his team needed it the most, which only added to his mystique of greatness. In addition to his Test exploits, Viv can also claim to be arguably the greatest of all one-day batsman - and was indeed rated so by Wisden. Possibly his finest ever innings actually came in a one-day international against England in 1984 when he scored 189* out of a team total of 272. Richard's extraordinary eye gave him the ability to hammer straight balls through mid wicket and hook even the fastest of bouncers imperiously over the boundary - Somerset team mate Vic Marks warmly recalls willing opposition bowlers to bounce Richards just so he could watch the majesty of his hooking. A showman and entertainer to the end, not to mention one of the very greatest batsmen in the history of the game, Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards takes his worthy place in our all time top 10.
Number 7 on our list will follow later today, as I try to make up for some lost time over the past couple of days...
8.
Sir Viv Richards | Cricket Players and Officials | Cricinfo.com
Nominated by 82% of voters - highest ranking no.3
Brutal, dominant, arrogant, masterful - Viv Richards was all of these things and so much more. In an era of so many truly great batsmen - the likes of Gavaskar, Chappell, Border and Miandad were in their pomp during Viv's career - it says something about the man they called the Master Blaster that he is almost without exception acknowledged as the best. His pure numbers, outstanding as they are, don't necessarily outstrip his contemporaries, but the sheer havoc he wreaked over bowling attacks worldwide for nearly two decades speaks volumes for his extraordinary power to utterly demoralise an entire opposition team off his own bat and turn a cricket match on its head in a matter of hours. When Viv was on song he was quite simply unstoppable - both with the bat and in the field. One of the most outstanding all-round fieldsmen of all time, he is surely one of a very small group of players who have turned the course of a major match (the 1975 World Cup Final against Australia) purely through his fielding alone. When he was selected by Wisden as one of the Five Cricketers of the 20th Century, there were few dissenting voices.
Richards announced himself to the world in 1976 with his then-record year of 1,710 runs at an average of 90, including two magnificent double centuries in England, which invited comparisons with Bradman. From the end of that tour he was by common consent the world's best batsman, and was rarely if ever considered otherwise for the next decade or more. In his first season of World Series Cricket, Richards made 862 runs in six "Tests" while over four series against Australia, England and Pakistan between 1979-81 he averaged 77. As the 1980s wore on he rarely scored in such consistently heavy quantities, but rather seemed to save himself for producing his best on the big occasion or when his team needed it the most, which only added to his mystique of greatness. In addition to his Test exploits, Viv can also claim to be arguably the greatest of all one-day batsman - and was indeed rated so by Wisden. Possibly his finest ever innings actually came in a one-day international against England in 1984 when he scored 189* out of a team total of 272. Richard's extraordinary eye gave him the ability to hammer straight balls through mid wicket and hook even the fastest of bouncers imperiously over the boundary - Somerset team mate Vic Marks warmly recalls willing opposition bowlers to bounce Richards just so he could watch the majesty of his hooking. A showman and entertainer to the end, not to mention one of the very greatest batsmen in the history of the game, Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards takes his worthy place in our all time top 10.
Number 7 on our list will follow later today, as I try to make up for some lost time over the past couple of days...