Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards

[Lurker]

Apologies for starting another thread about Barry Richards but I just had a fleeting feeling that many here are perhaps not very much aware of his exploits. The following comments by his peers, past and present, are for cricket fans to just relax and read opinions about this great batsman. No its not being put here to prove a point or anything,more of an attempt for fans to lay back and enjoy. These are all collected from cricket books that I have at hand, so no soft copies or web link but if someone desires I can scan and send it to them. Also if you wish to pursue the discussion continues at http://indiancricketfans.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2194&start=100 Alright so here goes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Len Hutton(former English opening batsman and all-time great, one of the greatest opening batsman ever.) -- Barry Richards was a fine strokemaker of the highest class and a player I would hold up as an example for any schoolboy to try to emulate. (Hutton selected Barry as part of his top opening batsmen ever. He ranked him second to Jack Hobbs and ahead of the likes of Gavaskar and Suttcliff) Basil D' Oliviera(former South African player, made more famous due to his skin colur controversy rather than his game. Played for England as well) -- Barry Richards sits atop at my list of greatest battlers in the game. As well as marvellous ability he was blessed with fighting qualities. Could break the heart of the bowlers with competitive spirit, battling regardless of what was thrown(at him). (D' Oliviera selected Barry Richards as part of his greatest battler of cricket selection. Other to make the cut included Sobers, Kanhai, Viv and Greg Chappell) Ted Dexter(Known as ultimate buccaneer of English cricket, marvellous player in his own right.) -- Barry ws a delight to watch for the fluency and range of his strokes. The only better stroke player than him was Gary Sobers. (Ted selected Barry as part of greatest stroke makers list. The others to make the cut included Sobers, Graeme Pollock, Viv Richards) Colin Milburn(English all-rounder known for his girth and hard-hitting, made more famous by loss of his one eye at peak of his career) --- He(barry) stands third in my list of greatest entertainers of the batsmen I have played with or against. The one and two are Gary Sobers and Viv Richards. Keith Fletcher(former England and Sussex captain) -- The finest right-handed batsmen that I have played against are Barry Richards and Greg Chappell. Graham Gooch(former England and Essex captain) -- Barry Richards is without question the best batsman I have played against. He had all the shots and made batting look extremely easy. His timing was perfect and he had power and precision all-around the wicket.It was a pleasure to watch him in action, even when having to chase his shots to the boundary. Kim Hughes(Australian captain famous for his strokeplay, not wearing helmets while batting and resigning from captaincy in tears) -- To be perfect batsman you have to have the concentration and tecnique of Geoff Boycott and power,grace and dashing strokeplay of Viv Richards. The player who had the mixture of these two qualities was Barry Richards, the perfect batsman to me. In Australia cricket followers still recall the match in 1971 when he scored 325 in a day. He totalled 1538 runs that season at an average of 109.86. That was batting in the Bradman class.(at the time Barry was the batsman who had come closest to Bradman's 50 years record of 1690 runs in a season in Sheffield Shield) John Lever(former English left arm bowler made more famous for Vaseline incident) -- Barry Richards is the closest to the most perfect batsman I have seen or bowled to. He can play shots all around the wicket, on all kind of pitches and has a very sound technique. John Snow(English fast bowler, famous in India for butting into Sunny Gavaskar while he batsman ran for a quick single) -- Gary Sobers and Barry Richards are the perfect batsman I saw. Had Barry Richards had the challenge of more Test cricket, I feel he might hae reached the same heights and recognition as the genius Sobers. Brian Johnston(arguably one of the greatest commentators ever, also known around the world for his hilarous laugh tete-a-tete with Aggers about "He couldnt get his leg over" incident regarding Botham) -- Barry Richards and Len Hutton are my dream team openers. Two absolute masters. (the rest of the team included Viv Richards,Bradman, Hammond, Compton, Sobers, Benaud/Laker, Evans, Lindwall and Lillee) Dennis Lillee(former Australian great, the reason why Gavaskar tried to stage a walk-out during a test match) -- I have seen him play county cricket and WSC where he scored hundreds making them look so easy it made me wonder just how good he could have been. He was difficult to bowl to because he could play every shot in the book and then some. He was a magician. Like Viv, he created shots that I had never seen before but he was very elegant and brutal in effect. (Lillee included Barry Richards as one of the 10 greatest batsmen he bowled to, Barry coming 3rd in his ranks after Viv and Sobers). Henry Blofeld(TMS commentator famous in India for his "marvellous earrings" comments while gams in Sharjah) -- All the years I have spent watching cricket I have never ever seen anyone make the art of batting look simpler. Had South African sporting isolation not happened, Barry Richards might have been the batsman to have come closest to Don Bradman. He(Barry) opened for Hampshire with Gordon Greendidge and there is no doubt that he was the better batsman.It would be impossible to play the ball as late as Barry did.I remember in a game where I was told by a bowler "Its got to the stage that when I come in to bowl to him he blocks the bad balls and hits only the good ones. It seems to amuse him more". I(Henry Blofeld) remember once being told that he(Barry) made a century in a game by playing all the shots with edge of the blade...he might very well could have. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- These have all been taking from different books(and no they did not include any "homage" sort of write-up about Barry). Hope you had as great a time reading it, as I had a lousy time typing it all :tired: . xxxxx

[Dhondy]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards Yup, you can't ignore so many opinions. Wish I could see a video of him though. Rajeev et al, any ideas?

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards -- Removed on request of the user --

[Dhondy]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards

Why does Anil Kumble Not get the same rating as DKL/Barry and the those othes in that list of 25 cricketers ?

That's easy to answer. The romance that an unfulfilled career, that had great potential, evokes in people's minds. You've got to admit, the man's life is a tragedy. He could have been a genius of our times, but was born in the wrong place in the wrong era, and now has to make his living shuttling between crummy commentary boxes.

[Bumper]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards Lurker u are an asset to this forum. Thanks for all your research & patience in writing this up. Just curious u claimed in the other thread that so many great bowlers were unanimous that Barry was the among the toughest they bowled to. But in this list i see only two bowlers. One good one (Snow) & a great one (Dennis Lillee). Do you have quch quotes from Marshall, Holding, Imran etc as well ?

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards -- Removed on request of the user --

[Lurker]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards Err guys...I wrote this just to share some of the opinions of the others. The discussion continues in the original thread. I just put them here so people who visit our forum and have some time on hand may enjoy it without going into hardcore debate. I have duly replied in the debate thread. :)

[Dhondy]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards But, Boss, we are talking about people's opinions! Surely, you can appreciate that top 10, top 25, etc are subjective lists, and will therefore be influenced by emotion. A regal, but all too brief career, cut short by politics may therefore well rate ahead of a consistent but unspectacular, albeit high achieving one. Don't see a problem acknowledging both.

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards -- Removed on request of the user --

[Dhondy]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards Why do you think Allan Donald recently called Sachin Tendulkar the greatest player ever to hold a bat, when the latter is in the worst slump of his career, and has been overtaken by Ponting, Lara & co on the stats charts? If you have watched magic in action, however briefly, it can deeply influence you, and you don't change your mind easily, notwithstanding apartheid or loss of form.

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards -- Removed on request of the user --

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards -- Removed on request of the user --

[Bumper]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards Lurker i found that elusive batter who meets your greatness criteria. See my post on the other thread

[Lurker]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards

Just curious u claimed in the other thread that so many great bowlers were unanimous that Barry was the among the toughest they bowled to. But in this list i see only two bowlers. One good one (Snow) & a great one (Dennis Lillee). Do you have quch quotes from Marshall, Holding, Imran etc as well ?

I do Bumper. They were not more specific from what I could glean. Dennis Lillee wrote an entire paragraph on Barry while Holding included him in the list of great batsmen and left it there. I did not want to clutter with one liners so I left it that way. I would try to dig-up for some more informationa including about the game in which Barry scored 325 in a day, I see it being mentiond quite frequently. Ah just in case add Ian Botham to the list of admirer's. "As far as I am concerned its a crying shame that we were deprived of a chance to see him enjoy an extended Test career. For a plyer of Barry's talent to win only 4 caps is a sheer travesty. I'm convinced that if he'd enjoyed the International career his strokeplay deserved he would have been one of the all-time greats. Add to it the fact that in one-dayers he was as good if not better. He was one of the first men to improvise - by stepping outside the leg stump and carving over the covers for example. Putting it simply - we wuz robbed" I will try to look up for more. Actually will do that for some of the Indian players as well. Maybe we should have a section about cricket greats with articles? xxx

[Bumper]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards There is a diff between what Botham has said vs Lillee & Snow. Lillee & Snow's comments seem more out of personal experience bowling to Barry, while Botham's seems like a general opinion. Am looking for a quote like McWarne's "Lara & Tendu were the toughest batsmen to bowl to". That surely carries more weight than a McGrath or Warne stating that VVS is a very special player & one of the best i have seen. The former quote singles out two batsmen among many (a significant honor), the latter is merely a compliment to a very good batsman.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards Opinions get formed on the basis of one or two innings cricketer play agains each other more so in barry's case so must be taken with bucket-load of salt, nonetheless great collection of opinions of different cricketes aprpopos Barry. :wtg: :wtg:

[Birbal2]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards Interesting thing about the list produced by Lurker... all are GORAS... wonder why? :chin: :hic:

[Birbal2]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards btw, I do have footage of him batting in WSC.. he looked quite solid and all...but Viv Richards looked better... And interestingly in the WSC Barry was one of the FIRST players to start wearing a HELMET after he was knocked on the head by Lillee... Never saw Richards or Gavaskar wear a HELMET... or get knocked on the head for that matter... :hic:

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards Bradman never bothered to comment on this socalled second only to bradman guy, wonder why.....

[Birbal2]

Re: Peers, past and present, talk about Barry Richards Actually Bradman picked Barry Richards along with Arthur Morris to be the two openers for his ALL TIME World XI... i.e. he picked him over other right handed openers including Gavaskar, Hobbs, Hutton, Boycott, etc...