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Clive Hubert Lloyd CBE AO (born 31 August 1944) is a former West Indies cricketer. He captained the West Indies between 1974 and 1985 and oversaw their rise to become the dominant Test-playing nation, a position that was only relinquished in the latter half of the 1990s. He is one of the most successful Test captains of all time: during his captaincy the side had a run of 27 matches without defeat, which included 11 wins in succession (Viv Richards acted as captain for one of the 27 matches, against Australia at Port of Spain in 1983–84). He was the first West Indian player to earn 100 international caps. Lloyd captained the West Indies in three World Cups. They won the 1975 final (Lloyd scoring his own century) and the 1979 final. They were very strong favourites for the 1983 final but lost to India.

Lloyd was a tall, powerful middle-order batsman and occasional medium-pace bowler. In his youth he was also a strong cover point fielder. He wore his famous glasses as a result of being poked in the eye with a ruler. ^[1] He scored over 7500 runs at Test level, at an average of 46.67. He hit 77 sixes in his Test career, which is the sixth highest number of any player. He played for his home nation of Guyana in West Indies domestic cricket, and for Lancashire (he was made captain in 1981) in England. His Test match debut came in 1966. In 1971 he was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year. He is a cousin of spin bowler Lance Gibbs.

His worst injury was his back^[1]. He was playing for a Rest of the World team at the Adelaide Oval in 1971-72. He was fielding in the covers when Ashley Mallett hit a lofted drive towards his area. He made an amazing effort to take the catch but it bounced out of his hands when he hit the ground awkwardly. When he went to get up, he felt a stabbing pain in his back and he was unable to move. He spent the next few weeks in an Adelaide hospital flat on his back. ^[1]

Another example of how he was as a player comes from the 1975 Cricket World Cup Grand Final^[1]. The team were deep in trouble at 3/50 when he strode to the crease. He duly made 102 from 88 balls with this being his only limited overs international century^[1]. With Rohan Kanhai they added 149 for them to win by 17 runs. Play ended at 8:40pm London time and was the longest days' play ever at Lords^[1].

Since retiring as a player, Lloyd has remained heavily involved in cricket, managing the West Indies in the late 1990s, and coaching and commentating. He was an ICC match referee from 2001–2006.

On 22 January 1985, Lloyd was made an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to the sport of cricket, particularly in relation to his outstanding and positive influence on the game in Australia.^[2]

In 2005, Lloyd offered his patronage to Major League Cricket for their inaugural Interstate Cricket Cup in the United States, to be named the Sir Clive Lloyd Cup.

His son, Jason Clive Lloyd, is a goalkeeper for the Guyana national football team.

In 2007, his authorised biography, Supercat, was published. It was written by the cricket journalist, Simon Lister.

Clive Lloyd's career performance graph.

v t e squad – Rest of the World XI in Australia 1971/72 1 Sobers (c) 2 Ackerman 3 Asif Masood 4 Bedi 5 Cunis 6 Engineer (wk) 7 Gavaskar 8 Gifford 9 Greig 10 Hutton 11 Intikhab Alam 12 Kanhai 13 Lloyd 14 PM Pollock 15 RG Pollock 16 Taylor (wk) 17 Zaheer Abbas

v t e West Indies squad – World Series Cricket 1 Lloyd (c) 2 Allen 3 Austin 4 Croft 5 Daniel 6 Fredericks 7 Garner 8 Gibbs 9 Greenidge 10 Haynes 11 Holding 12 Holford 13 Julien 14 Kanhai 15 King 16 Murray (wk) 17 Padmore 18 Richards 19 Roberts 20 Rowe

References[link]

Sir Viv Richards

Personal information
Full name	Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards
Born	(1952-03-07) 7 March 1952 (age 60) St. John's, Antigua
Nickname	Master Blaster, Smokey, Smokin Joe, King Viv
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm medium/off-break
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	West Indies
Test debut (cap 151)	22 November 1974 v India
Last Test	8 August 1991 v England
ODI debut (cap 14)	7 June 1975 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI	27 May 1991 v England
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1990–1993	Glamorgan
1976–1977	Queensland
1974–1986	Somerset
1971–1991	Leeward Islands
1971–1981	Combined Islands
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	121	187	507	500
Runs scored	8,540	6,721	36,212	16,995
Batting average	50.23	47.00	49.40	41.96
100s/50s	24/45	11/45	114/162	26/109
Top score	291	189*	322	189*
Balls bowled	5,170	5,644	23,226	12,214
Wickets	32	118	223	290
Bowling average	61.37	35.83	45.15	30.59
5 wickets in innings	0	2	1	3
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	2/17	6/41	5/88	6/24
Catches/stumpings	122/–	100/–	464/1	238/–
Source: cricketarchive.com, 18 August 2007

Viv Richards' career performance graph.

Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, KNH, OBE (born 7 March 1952) is a former West Indian cricketer. Known as Viv (or King Viv^[1]), Richards was voted one of the five Cricketers of the Century in 2000, by a 100-member panel of experts, along with Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs and Shane Warne.^[2] In February 2002, he was judged by Wisden to have played the best One Day International (ODI) innings of all time.^[3] In December 2002, he was chosen by Wisden as the greatest ODI batsman of all time, as well as the third greatest Test batsman of all time, after Sir Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar.^[4]

Personality and playing style[link]

Richards was a very powerful right-handed batsman with an extremely attacking style, besides being an excellent fielder, and a handy off-spin bowler. He is often regarded as the most devastating batsman that ever played the game by cricketers, journalists, fans and others alike,^[5][6] and played his entire career without a helmet, across the 17 years from 1974 till 1991.^[5][6][7]

Several prominent personalities including former cricketer and legendary fast bowler and all-rounder Imran Khan and noted writer John Birmingham are of the opinion that Richards was the best ever batsman against genuine fast bowling.^[8][9] Many other former players of the game rate him extremely high overall as a batsman. For Barry Richards, Ravi Shastri and Neil Fairbrother, he remains the best batsman they ever witnessed.^[10][11][12] Wasim Akram rates Richards the greatest batsman he ever bowled to, ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and Martin Crowe.^[13] Martin Crowe, arguably the greatest batsman to have ever emerged from New Zealand, rates Viv Richards as the best batsman he played against along with Greg Chappell. Richards was also Crowe's cricketing idol along with Donald Bradman, Garfield Sobers and Greg Chappell.^[14]

The ICC came out with their rankings for the best batsmen and bowlers in the history of the game for both the longer and shorter versions. The ratings for Test Cricket had Vivian Richards ranked at 6 equal after Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Len Hutton, Sir Jack Hobbs, Ricky Ponting and Peter May.^[15] The ODI ratings again had Richards comfortably perched at 1 followed by Zaheer Abbas and Greg Chappell.^[16] These rankings were based on the level achieved by the batsmen at their respective peaks.

In 2004, in a poll by ESPN, participated in by 15 of the leading names in cricketing history, Richards was voted the third greatest ever player after Bradman and Sobers, and the second greatest ever batsman after Bradman.^[17] He was also voted the greatest cricketer since 1970 by another poll ahead of Ian Botham and Shane Warne.^[18] That poll saw both Botham and Warne vote for Richards, and in the opinions of both, Richards is the greatest batsman they ever saw. In 2006, in a study done by a team of ESPN's Cricinfo magazine, Richards was again chosen the greatest ODI Batsman ever.^[19] Former cricketer Derek Pringle also rates Richards to be the best batsman ever in the history of Limited Overs Cricket.^[20]

His fearless and aggressive style of play, and relaxed but determined demeanor made him a great crowd favourite and an intimidating prospect for opposition bowlers all over the world. The word "swagger" is frequently used to describe his batting style.^[9][21] His batting often completely dominated opposing bowlers.^[9][21] He had the ability to drive good-length balls from outside off-stump through midwicket, his trademark shot, and was one of the great exponents of the hook shot.^{[citation needed]}

International career[link]

Richards made his Test match debut for the West Indian cricket team in 1974 against India in Bangalore. He made an unbeaten 192 in the second Test of the same series in New Delhi. The West Indies saw him as a strong opener and he kept his profile up in the early years of his promising career.

In his Test career, he scored 8,540 runs in 121 Test matches at an average of 50.23 (including 24 centuries). Richards also scored 5 centuries in World Series Cricket between 1977–79. These are not recognised by the ICC as "official" Test centuries, but the high standard of cricket played in this series means that they can arguably be ranked alongside his 24 Test centuries. Richards won 27 of 50 matches as a Test captain, and lost only 8. He is also the scorer of the fastest-ever Test century, from just 56 balls against England in Antigua during the 1986 tour. He hit 84 sixes in Test cricket. His highest innings of 291 is sixth on the list of West Indies' highest individual scores.

In 1975 Richards helped the West Indies to win the inaugural Cricket World Cup final, a feat he later described as the most memorable of his career.^{[citation needed]} He starred in the field, running out Alan Turner, Ian Chappell and Greg Chappell. The West Indies were again able to win the following World Cup in 1979, thanks to a Richards century in the final at Lord's, and Richards believes that on both occasions, despite internal island divisions, the Caribbean came together.^[22] He was until 2005 the only man to score a century and take 5 wickets in the same one-day international, against New Zealand at Dunedin in 1986–87. He rescued his side from a perilous position at Old Trafford in 1984 and, in partnership with Michael Holding, smashed 189 to win the game off his own bat.

1976 was perhaps Richards' finest year: he scored 1710 runs, at an astonishing average of 90.00, with seven centuries in 11 Tests. This achievement is all the more remarkable considering he missed the second Test at Lord's after contracting glandular fever; yet he returned to score his career-best 291 at the Oval later in the summer. This tally stood as the world record for most Test runs by a batsman in a single calendar year for 30 years until broken by Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan on 30 November 2006.

Richards captained the West Indies in 50 Test matches from 1984–1991. He is the only West Indies captain never to lose a Test series, and it is said that his fierce will to win contributed to this achievement. His captaincy was, however, not without controversy: one incident was his aggressive, "finger-flapping" appeal leading to the incorrect dismissal of England batsman Rob Bailey in the Barbados Test in 1990, which was described by Wisden as "at best undignified and unsightly. At worst, it was calculated gamesmanship".^[23] This behaviour would nowadays be penalised according to Section 2.5. of the Rules of Conduct of the ICC Code of Conduct.^[24]

Viv's featured in the documentary movie Fire in Babylon and spoke about his matches.

English county cricket[link]

Richards had a long and successful career in the County Championship in England, playing for many years for Somerset. In 1983, the team won the NatWest Trophy, with Richards and close friend Ian Botham having a playful slugging match in the final few overs.

However, despite his totemic presence at the club, over time his performances declined and the county finished bottom of the County Championship in 1985, and next to bottom in 1986. New team captain Peter Roebuck became the centre of a controversy when he was instrumental in the county's decision not to renew the contracts of Richards and compatriot Joel Garner for the 1987 season, whose runs and wickets had brought the county much success in the previous eight years. Somerset proposed to replace the pair with New Zealand batsman Martin Crowe, and consequently all-rounder Botham refused a new contract and joined Worcestershire. After many years of bitterness and the eventual removal of Roebuck from the club, Richards was honoured with the naming of a set of entrance gates and a stand after him at the County Ground, Taunton.

After his sacking from Somerset, Richards spent the 1987 season in the Lancashire League playing as Rishton CC's professional,^[25] in preparation for the West Indies tour the following season. Richards returned to county cricket for the 1990 season towards the end of his career to play for Glamorgan, helping them to win the AXA Sunday League in 1993.

Retirement[link]

Richards being interviewed after a cricket match in 2006

Apart from his very exciting style of play, Richards is held in great public esteem for his personal principles in refusing a "blank-cheque" offer to play for a rebel West Indies squad in South Africa during the Apartheid era in 1983, and again in 1984.

Richards remains one of only four non-English cricketers to have scored 100 first-class centuries, the others being Australian Donald Bradman, New Zealander Glenn Turner and Pakistani Zaheer Abbas

He was chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1977.

In 2000, Richards was named by a 100-member panel of experts one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. He received 25 votes, behind Sir Donald Bradman (100 votes), Sir Garfield Sobers (90 votes), Sir Jack Hobbs (30 votes) and Shane Warne (27 votes).

He also played international football for Antigua, appearing in qualifying matches for the 1974 World Cup.^[26]

Richards is frequently heard on BBC's Test Match Special (TMS).^[27]

Personal life[link]

Richards and his wife Miriam have two children: Matara, who currently lives in Toronto, Canada, and Mali, who has also played first-class cricket.

Richards had a brief relationship with Indian actress Neena Gupta,^[28] with whom he has a daughter, Masaba,^[29] born in 1989.^[30]

Honours[link]

In 1994, Richards was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to cricket.^[31] In 1999, he was made a Knight of the Order of the National Hero (KNH) by his native country Antigua and Barbuda.^[32]

The Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua, is named in his honour. It was built for use in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

See also[link]

Cricket portal

• List of international cricket centuries by Viv Richards

References[link]