Viv Richards Biography
Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards popularly known as Viv Richards is a retired cricketer for the West Indies Cricket team. He belongs to an Antiguan state. He represented the West Indian cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Batting usually at number three in a dominant West Indies side, he is considered as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He was honored with titles KNH (Knight of the Order of the National Hero) and OBE (Order of the British Empire for his services to cricket. Currently, he is 70 years old. Some of the nicknames given by his fans are Master Blaster, Smokin Joe, King Viv. In this blog we are going to tell you about Viv Richards, so read this blog carefully to get the complete information.
Early life and Education
Richards was born on 7 March 1952 in St John’s, Antigua which was earlier a part of the British Leeward Islands. He is the son of Malcolm and Gretel Richards. At first, he studied at St John’s Boys Primary School and later attended Antigua Grammar Secondary School on a scholarship.
 At a young age, Richard started learning cricket. His brothers Mervyn and Donald represented Antigua as cricket players and also encouraged him to play. In the beginning, he used to practice cricket with his father and a neighbor, and a family friend named Pat Evanson, who was a former captain of the Antigua site. When he was 18 he left his school and started working at D’Arcy’s Bar and Restaurant in St.John’s. Later he joined the St.Johns cricket club. Seeing his passion the owner of the restaurant where he worked, named D’Arcy Williams, gifted him new whites, gloves, pets, and a bat. However, after a few seasons with St John’s cricket club, he joined the Rising Sun Cricket Club. He remained in the Rising Sun cricket club until his departure to play abroad.
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Viv Richards Personal life
Viv is married to Miriam and the couple has two children. His son Mali Alexander Richards is also a cricketer and played first-class cricket for the Leeward Islands. He is also godfather to an England cricketer, Lan Botham’s son, Liam. Recharge had a short-lived relationship with Indian actress Neena Gupta, with whom he has a daughter named Masaba Gupta who works as a fashion designer.
Cricket Career as a Player
In January 1972, at the age of 19, he made his first-class debut. He participated in a non-competition match in which he represented the Leeward Islands against the Windwards. He scored 20 and 26 in that match. A few days later after this match, he made his competitive debut. He played in the domestic West Indian Shell Shield for the combined Leeward and Windward Islands in Kingston, Jamaica versus Jamaica. He scored 15 and 32 which was the top score in the second innings in a heavy defeat for his side.
When Richard turned 22, he had played matches in the Antiguan, Leeward Islands, and Combined Islands tournaments. In 1973, his skills were noticed by Len Creed who was the Vice-chairman at Somerset.
Later on, he relocated to the United Kingdom where Creed arranged a league cricket for him in Lansdown C.C. in Bath. On 26 April 1973, he made his Lansdown debut as a part of the second XI at Western super Mare.
Then in 1974, he moved to Taunton for his preparation as a professional debut. On 27 April 1974, he made his Benson & Hedges Cup debut for Somerset against Glamorgan in Swansea and for that match, he was awarded Man of the Match.
Test Debut to International Stardom
In 1974, Richard made his Test match debut for the West Indian cricket team against India in Bangalore. Then in 1975, he helped the West Indies to win the inaugural Cricket World Cup final. Thanks to Richard century, West Indies were again able to win the World Cup in 1979. Until 2005 he was the only man to score a century and take five wickets in the same One Day International against New Zealand which was held at Dunedin in 1986-1987.
He captained the West Indies in 50 test matches between 1984 and 1991. He is the only West Indies captain who had never lost a test series and this made him one of the best captains ever.
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Achievements of Viv Richards in his Career
Between 1977 to 1979, free chat scored five centuries in World Series Cricket. As a test captain, he won 27 of 50 matches and lost only 8. During the 1986 tour with the match against England in Antigua, Richards scored equal to the second-fastest ever test century. Some of his international achievements include being the first Batsman to score a test century at a strike rate of over 150 in 1986, the fastest century in test history with 56 balls in 1986, fastest batsman 2000 ODI runs, highest individual ODI score when batting at a number for the position, the highest ever 10th wicket partnership in ODI history, the first player to a score fifty and to take a five-wicket haul in the same ODI and the first player to complete the double of scoring 1000 runs and taking 50 wickets in ODI history.
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Receptions received by Richard
- Richard was selected as an officer of the
Order of the British Empire for services to cricket in 1994. Further, in 1999 he was appointed Knight Commander of the order of the nation by his native country Antigua and Barbuda and later awarded with Knight of the Order of the National Heroin 2006. In his honor, a stadium was built in North Sound Antigua which was named Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. In honor of Richards and Sir Lan Bentham, Wisden Trophy was replaced with Richard-Botham Trophy for winners of the West Indies England test series.
- Viv Richards Football Career
Some authors contend that Richards also played football at the international level for Antiguan and Barbuda in which he appeared in the qualifying matches for the World Cup in 1974. Despite this, he doesn’t appear in recorded line-ups for these matches.
So overall, this article was about Viv Richards who was one of the most successful and famous cricketers of his time.
