BASSETERRE (St Kitts), March 17: West Indies legend Sir Viv Richards hailed Herschelle Gibbs on Saturday after the South African created history by becoming the first player to hit six sixes in an international over.Gibbs achieved the landmark in the 30th over of his side's 221-run demolition of the Netherlands at Warner Park before going on to make a 40-ball 72.

“Herschelle Gibbs was one of the players who I thought could achieve the feat and I'm delighted he's done it,” said Richards who also noted that Gibbs's heroics also prompted a leading drinks company to pay out a million dollars to charity.

“A million dollars is a lot of money and this sum will go to a great charity.”

Gibbs said he didn't know of the campaign of the sponsor group to stump up the money.

“I was not aware of the charity announcement. I have seen Brian Lara hitting some sixes in a Test so I thought, may be, something similar and it happened.”—AFP