I am wondering what it would be like sitting so close to a cricketing legend. There is an indescribable sensation about him as he walks in the room at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City while I am still in deep thought as to how I can overcome the feeling of trepidation which has slowly crept inside me. But the gripping tension eases off the moment the greatest and most destructive batsman of the modern era extends his hand to shake mine with a big smile on his face. It is March 7, his 66th birthday. I wish Sir Vivian Richards many happy returns of the day.
The first thing the former West Indies captain touches upon is his affiliation with Quetta Gladiators, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise of which Richards has been the mentor and inspiration behind their reaching the final in the first two seasons. He describes why he chose to come under the Quetta radar after a short Indian Premier League (IPL) stint sometime ago with the Delhi Daredevils.
“In a new environment it has to be the management one looks at first,” he says. “I knew team owner Nadeem Omar and head coach Moin Khan whom I have known for quite some time now but didn’t play against. It is just the sort of camaraderie and the relaxedness Moin and the owner showed which made me feel at home. It’s a privilege to be here with the Quetta team and the friendly environment they bring to the table.
The world of cricket has seldom seen a batsman as fearless and destructive as Sir Vivian Richards. These days, at age 66, mentoring the PSL franchise Quetta Gladiators, he looks just as animated as he was in his playing days. He opens up to Eos about his thoughts on the West Indies, Pakistan and Sarfraz Ahmed
“We back each other and enjoy each other’s success and this spirit within the squad is translated into performances on the field. Everyone is so relaxed
and that’s what I like. It’s just magnificent. Moin, for some reason, trusts me. I don’t know why [laughs] but he always comes to me.”
Where certain foreign teams may still not be comfortable travelling to Pakistan, Richards is quick to acknowledge the tremendous welcomes he has received whenever he has visited the country.
“I have a lot of friends in Pakistan and enjoyed the hospitality extended to me there. Abdul Qadir, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram … I was flooded with memories of the past when I was in Lahore for the PSL final last year. The electrifying atmosphere was absolutely sensational. I even shed a few tears,” he says. “Times have perhaps changed for the better but the sense of belonging and being profoundly loved is overwhelming because I am a very emotional individual.
“Pakistan had issues in relation to security and the teams refuse to play here and you don’t get the same passionate kind of feeling anywhere else. Staging PSL in the UAE hasn’t generated the crowd coming in big numbers because the passion is missing despite there being a fair population of Pakistanis living in Dubai and Sharjah. But the passion was there during the final in Lahore and, to be fair, Insha’Allah, Karachi would be a hub of great excitement in the final.
“Karachi is very close to my heart. I remember hitting a few sixes there [Sir Vivian hammered 181 against Sri Lanka during the 1987 World Cup and hoisted seven of the 125 balls faced for sixes while also hitting 16 fours].
“The PSL has given me a chance to reconnect myself with Pakistan cricket and refresh memories of yesteryear. For the modern generation, Shane Warne must have been a hell of a bowler to be ranked at the top for many years. But I state here that I’ve had yet to find a better leg-spinner than Abdul Qadir. He was a magician,” says Sir Viv.
The great man was at pains to comment on the turbulent phase of West Indies cricket and straightaway blames the administrators in the board for their steep fall from grace. “It is extremely painful to see ourselves at the bottom of the pile,” he says. “We were the World Cup champions in 1975 and 1979. Having to play the qualifier in Zimbabwe now to make the World Cup is just disgraceful. The board must take the blame because it failed to show respect to the former greats.
“The people in charge of West Indies cricket are responsible for the decline because they have a responsibility to put certain things in place to enhance and maybe prolong what West Indies cricket was all about,” he says. “There were a few CEOs at the time and I remember there was this guy by the name of Ernest Hilaire [from 2009 to 2012], who knew nothing about West Indies cricket and was still the CEO. He disregarded all the players of the past and was disrespectable. They tried to create a new niche. But you cannot do that in order to be part of the present while lacking an understanding of what it was like [laughs with a tinge of frustration].
Recalling the golden era during his playing days when the West Indies ruled the world of cricket with a menacing battery of four fast bowlers, Sir Viv says that he would love to have some of those guys playing now. “Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd, Andy Roberts and Michael Holding ... there were even some who could never play because the competition was very tough. We found a formula to win. Having four fast bowlers paid dividends for the West Indies.
“We were blessed with a captain in Clive Lloyd. We didn’t have the support staff. Under Clive, we never had a fielding coach, a bowling coach and a batting coach. Everything was managed by the captain who had to organise practice. We only had a trainer and a physio apart from a team manager.
“It was down to the individuals to manage themselves in terms of preparations. Clive Lloyd was a father-figure to many of us. He was very good and the legacy we had then was due to the fact that Clive was part of it,” he says.
Sir Viv made an inauspicious international debut in November 1974 but immediately found leg-spin as his Achilles heel before a lucky break revived his career. “Leg-spinners have been a major issue during my early days of international cricket. My debut for the West Indies was a nightmare. A guy with a withered bowling arm called [Bhagwat] Chandrasekhar got me in both innings for single-digit scores at Bangalore in late1974,” he remembers. “I wished then I could put something in his food so that he could not play the match. Then for some reason he missed the next Test and I scored 192 not out! I would always consider it as the biggest break of my playing career and if that hadn’t been the case then I won’t be here talking to you!
“Towards the end of my career I found another chap who troubled me a lot. Wasim Akram was establishing himself and I remember he once bowled a bouncer where the ball swished past, parting my hair. Ever since that day, I said to myself ‘Oh, I am so glad that I’m near retirement’ because Wasim Akram in my opinion was very special,” he says.
“You can’t have anyone better than Wasim as a left-armer who came round and did a lot of unorthodox things. It’s not necessary for one to have a perfect action. Wasim had a good head, was a strong individual and used his height pretty well. And coming round the wicket for his reverse swing made it difficult to play him at times.
“I was a fearless sort of a batsman and always liked to hit if the ball was there to be hit. You could say that I was ideal for T20 cricket because my approach was ‘see ball, hit ball!’
“I was never comfortable in a helmet and never wore one during my playing days. I recall being happy at giving Rodney Hogg a perfect response at the Melbourne Cricket Ground after misjudging a pull. The ball hit me straight on the side of my face. When you are hit by a short ball sometimes you are apprehensive about the next delivery. But my response was good and a top-edge flew high into the stands.
“I respect good bowlers because they can get you out anytime. Dennis Lillee was a good bowler. When I went to Australia in 1975-76, there were chants of ‘Lillee, Lillee, Lillee’ and we have had good baptism on bouncy, hard pitches. We played six Test matches and lost 5-1. That was a huge baptism for me as a player.
“After that series, we played India back home and I scored three centuries in a row and then I went to England and had my best series ever. So I guess it was wonderful baptism in Australia,” he smiles.
When asked to take a pick among his most memorable innings across the two formats, Richards didn’t rate the masterly 291 versus England or even the unbeaten 138 in the World Cup. Instead he got a little poignant.
“When I was growing up, I used to come to the Antigua Recreation Ground (ARC) with a dream. England have always been my favourite team. Being our past slave masters who colonised our territory, it made me more determined to do well and England suffered the most at my hands.
“As far as my best knock is concerned, I would pick the 102 I scored against England at the ARC in front of my family in 1981. Because being a hometown boy I got emotional while reaching three figures in front of all who were very close to me. And when you can feel it [atmosphere] then why not shed a tear or two?
“The 291 was a good innings but I always look to those which have some sentiment attached such as the one in Antigua because I have seen the ground developing from a very young age and I dreamt of scoring there myself. And it did happen and made me very emotional.
“And then I recall making 189 not out at Old Trafford [in 1984] in what was one of my better innings and definitely the best ODI knock I have ever played. That day I owed Michael Holding a lot because I was in the 90s when he came in at No 11 and together we put on 106 without being separated.
“England, I said earlier, were always my favourite enemy and wow, I scored 138 not out in the 1979 World Cup final at Lord’s. I can remember the last ball from Mike Hendrick being smashed over the square leg boundary. It being the last ball of the innings, made me say to myself ‘why not get a four or six’ and six it was.
“Cricket has always been my passion and as a batsman I played every stroke in the coaching manual as well as my own invented shots. If I were playing now, I would have enjoyed the fun that T20 stuff produces. And I could have had a tilt at a double ton given the perimeter used in this format!”
Richards closes on a note of advice for Sarfraz Ahmed, while praising the positive nature of Pakistan’s current captain. “The motivating factor of Sarfraz is tremendous. I love his attitude and the way he goes about his job when the chips are down in trying to lift his team as much as he can. People say he is aggressive but to me it is one of his attributes. And when I look around in the PSL, I don’t see anyone else having the same passionate virtues that Sarfraz has.
“Even before I came to Quetta Gladiators, I had seen Sarfraz being proactive and always trying to do things differently when he batted. I love the fearlessness in his approach to leadership because he reads the game very well.
“Sarfraz, too, will obviously have his bad days but people must respect and understand this because he is an individual who wants things to happen. So there will be occasions where you are going to fail. But one should have the passion to succeed. There may be individuals in the team who may sometimes not like his approach. But at the end of the day, he is a captain, who goes to a player and says ‘Hey, I’m the in charge here and I believe in your abilities to perform.’ And when you have a captain like that, it’s a blessing in disguise.”
The writer is a member of staff
Published in Dawn, EOS, March 25th, 2018