It took a year in coming but after some suspense it came via the most sublime of on drives. Yousuf had broken the record, quite appropriately, with the shot that most brings out his class as a batsman. It is one of the most beautiful of cricket shots and requires almost perfect timing if it is to reach the boundary.

As if to convey that he is in full control, he played one more to celebrate, with the same result. Yousuf had gone past a 30-year milestone that many from Gavaskar, Greg Chappell, Allan Border, Javed Miandad, Martin Crowe, Aravinda DeSilva, Inzamam, Lara, Gooch, Ponting, Azharuddin have tried and failed to surpass eversince it was posted in 1976.

Now Yousuf has completed his annus mirabilis or the miracle year. He finished it the way he began — with a hundred. Sir Viv started his year with 44. Yousuf made 9 hundreds, Viv made 7. Yousuf finished it with a century in each innings; Viv with an innings of 291. Both played Tests against India and England. Viv had two double hundreds in the year. Yousuf had one and other scores of 192, 192 and 191.

But can they be truly compared? I think not. Viv Richards was a magnificent batsman. He could shake an attack like salt and pepper bottles and throw it away in the dustbin.

He attacked fearlessly. He never once wore a helmet in his long career, even though helmets became the necessity just five years after he began playing Test cricket.

He took on Australian fast bowlers in their backyard and massacred them at will. He walked with a swagger that would put fear in a bowler at 100 paces. And he stroked with a beauty and grace that was an eye sweetener. He had flair and charisma and had fast bowlers for breakfast and spinners for dinner. If anyone dared to hit Thomson straight back over his head on a tearaway pitch, it was him. He blasted the fastest Test hundred. He bowed to nobody. And he gave very few chances.

To compare Yousuf to him would not be fair to either one. They are like Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. Yousuf has gone about meticulously compiling, and salvaging Pakistan through tough times this year. He has had an appetite for runs and a staying power that Richards normally had not. Viv was always in a hurry and because of his supreme talent he got his runs before he got bored.

Which is why the comparison should not be drawn. But for those who believe that Yousuf has not faced the sort of conditions that Viv is said to have faced in 1976 in terms of pitches and bowling strength, it is desirable that Yousuf is vindicated, even though I know that none of those who have put Richards on a higher tier mean not to belittle Yousuf.

Richards had scores of 98 and 101 early that year in 1976, when he opted to open against Lillee and Thomson in a series that West Indies were to lose 1-5. That was the only tough part for Viv.

India came calling with their four spinners nearing retirement and overweight and bowling on either flat tracks or grassy pitches which gave them no turn. They only had medium pacers making their first or second tour. Richards slaughtered them with 142, 130, 177 and 64 on the flat tracks of Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad.

Yousuf faced Kumble and Harbhajan on far better form and stamina than their predecessors. Not to mention Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan.

It is against England that comparisons have supposedly been made that the attack was dangerous. Let me put it simply and matter of fact. The bowlers in that five-Test series in 1976 were mostly inexperienced or nearing their end. John Snow, in fact, retired after that series while Geoff Miller and Mike Selvey made their Test debuts.

Chris Old came into that series with just 12-Test experience, Mike Hendrick with 8 and Willis with 16. Pat Pocock, the ageing spinner, came into the series with a Test bowling average of 43 and was not selected for England for another eight years. His one threat was Derek Underwood. whose style of bowling suited wet pitches.

Yousuf faced no bowler whose retirement year is 2006, in fact far from it. And he faced no bowler making his Test debut. He faced Hoggard ( 55 Tests) and Harmison (41). Sajid Mahmood and Monty Panesar were the only inexperienced bowlers but they had played close to 10 Tests between them.

1976 was one of the hottest English summers on record and we all know that English bowlers fall flat in the heat, let alone those with limited exposure to such temperatures.

The pitches were very flat and the outfields were parched on a couple of grounds at a time when English bowlers had no clue how to use the roughed up ball.

England had a dad's army for a team with over 40s like Brian Close being hauled from the woodwork by the selectors.

I say again, that Sir Vivian Richards was a batsman with whom comparisons cannot be made. But at the same time let's not put his tally of 1710 as more tough to compile than Yousuf's. The reasons have been stated. I rest my case.