Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock

[ankitj]

I watched the Legends of Cricket features on Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock. It's fascinating how highly likes of Tony Greig, Ian Chappell, Dickie Bird, Richie Benaud etc talk of them. By all accounts, they were both supremely gifted and very destructive batsmen. Pollock often gets compared with Sobers; Barry Richards was supposed to be as good as Viv Richards. It's a great, great tragedy that their careers were cut short by politics.

I wanted to hear from CWers what they think of these two, where they stack up among the great batsmen of all time and how do they compare with one another.

 

[robelinda]

Seen more Barry Richards in somewhere near his prime than Pollock, got heaps of the rebel tours in the 80's that featured Pollock but he was in his 40's- he was a brute of a batsman though even then. Easily the most destructive of the two. Barry was more classy, Greg Chappell like. Cant think of many left batsmen like Pollock who had little foot movement and just stood there and smacked it.

 

[Debris]

Sadly, we unfortunately did not see enough of either at the elite level of competition to make a judgement Performances at lower levels of competition suffer from the Hick factor which makes it hard to use them.

 

[fredfertang]

I saw little of Graeme Pollock and what I did see was in the 1970 RoW series or near the end of his career - Barry Richards we saw plenty of in the 1970's - I have never seen anyone make batting look so easy or so elegant

 

[cricket100%]

Thanks for a great poll ankit. Well it is extremely difficult to choose between Pollock and Richards. What I would like to know from you is who do you regard as the best?

 

[ankitj]

Thanks for a great poll ankit. Well it is extremely difficult to choose between Pollock and Richards. What I would like to know from you is who do you regard as the best?

I really can't say. I just accept the common consensus that Pollock was the greatest South African cricketer of the last century. I just saw a comment in a recent cricinfo article claiming that Barry Richards was a far more gifted batsman than Graeme Pollock. Hence decided to put this up to get views of CWers.

Graeme Pollock btw makes it to my all time world XI.

 

[Himannv]

Voted for Pollock. I believe he was the best of the two.

 

[Blaze 18]

Graeme Pollock. For one, he was the better and more destructive batsman by most accounts; for another, he played five times as many tests.

 

[fredfertang]

Graeme Pollock. For one, he was the better and more destructive batsman by most accounts; for another, he played five times as many tests.

With the greatest of respect given the circumstances that is about as relevant as pointing out Richards average is 12 points higher ie not at all

 

[kingkallis]

I saw Greame Pollock scoring a fantastic 100 in veteran trophy back in mid or late 90s when Pollock was 50+ yet the reflexes and drives gave me the idea what world has missed.

 

[ankitj]

BTW, why did Barry play his first test only as late as when he 24? Given his enormous talent, he should have played about 4-5 years earlier, one would think.

 

[Blaze 18]

With the greatest of respect given the circumstances that is about as relevant as pointing out Richards average is 12 points higher ie not at all

You are right, it does seem rather irrelevant; but given that I have not had the pleasure of watching either of them bat, what else do I have to go on ?

 

[fredfertang]

BTW, why did Barry play his first test only as late as when he 24? Given his enormous talent, he should have played about 4-5 years earlier, one would think.

Because South Africa's previous series had been as long before as 66/67 when he was 21, and Eddie Barlow and Trevor Goddard were an established opening pair - he did play three other games against the Australians and scored 385 runs at 77 so he was clearly ready for the international game

 

[cricket_wallah]

Barry Richards was the greatest batsman I have ever seen. I always preferred him to Viv Richards because he was as destructive as Viv but classically orthodox in defence and even more inventive in his strokeplay - I have never seen anyone play the "inside out" shot or dance down the wicket to pace bowlers more easily. He was also the most mercurial batsman I have ever seen - the sense of melancholy pervading a globetrotting mercenary (as some saw him) deprived of a country to represent in test cricket was almost palpable as was the boredom with which he threw his wicket away from time to time as if in disgust at having to compete with lesser mortals. Then there was the occasion his parents flew from Durban to see him play for Hampshire - his mother missed the plane and he scored a century in front of his father in the first innings, his mother was at the ground on the last day and he scored another hundred for her in not much more than a couple of hours. He finally had enough and walked out of Hampshire in 1978 - Packer gave him the motivation to challenge himself against the best and although past his prime he did better than any other batsman against the West Indian pace battery. Hopefully someone some day will recover all the old BBC tapes of his televised centuries for Hampshire (playing in front of a television audience invariably gave him the incentive to produce his best) and put them up on youtube. The other great thing about Barry Richards playing for Hampshire, I should add, was his opening partnership with Gordon Greenidge - people talk about Haynes and Greenidge and rightly so, but believe me, Richards and Greenidge was something to behold!

 

[Top_Cat]

My first look at Pollock was in the Bradman tribute game at the SCG yeeers ago. Even 50+, the guy looked the business. So much power from just playing through the line. Could not believe how easy he found it to just flick-pull for 4, even Tony Greig was getting all emotional in the comm box.

 

[centurymaker]

Barry Richards was the greatest batsman I have ever seen. I always preferred him to Viv Richards because he was as destructive as Viv but classically orthodox in defence and even more inventive in his strokeplay - I have never seen anyone play the "inside out" shot or dance down the wicket to pace bowlers more easily. He was also the most mercurial batsman I have ever seen - the sense of melancholy pervading a globetrotting mercenary (as some saw him) deprived of a country to represent in test cricket was almost palpable as was the boredom with which he threw his wicket away from time to time as if in disgust at having to compete with lesser mortals. Then there was the occasion his parents flew from Durban to see him play for Hampshire - his mother missed the plane and he scored a century in front of his father in the first innings, his mother was at the ground on the last day and he scored another hundred for her in not much more than a couple of hours. He finally had enough and walked out of Hampshire in 1978 - Packer gave him the motivation to challenge himself against the best and although past his prime he did better than any other batsman against the West Indian pace battery. Hopefully someone some day will recover all the old BBC tapes of his televised centuries for Hampshire (playing in front of a television audience invariably gave him the incentive to produce his best) and put them up on youtube. The other great thing about Barry Richards playing for Hampshire, I should add, was his opening partnership with Gordon Greenidge - people talk about Haynes and Greenidge and rightly so, but believe me, Richards and Greenidge was something to behold!

no wonder he was in bradman's all time xi

 

[robelinda]

YouTube - Barry Richards 129 Hampshire vs Lancs 1970

YouTube - Graeme Pollock 114 vs England 1970

 

[Burgey]

My first look at Pollock was in the Bradman tribute game at the SCG yeeers ago. Even 50+, the guy looked the business. So much power from just playing through the line. Could not believe how easy he found it to just flick-pull for 4, even Tony Greig was getting all emotional in the comm box.

He must have been belting some Australian bowler then

 

[robelinda]

I taped that whole match too, might upload some ball by ball Graeme Pollock from it.

 

[Top_Cat]

That would be awesome but the most hilarious moment of the match was this;

YouTube - Womens Cricketer Zoe Goss gets Brian Lara and Jeff Dujon (1994)

Was right after that game that Lara had bit of a run of outs. Apparently, while he was smiling there, bringing up the 'getting out to a woman' thing was a pretty effective sledge for a while.

heh, remember Lillee taking every opportunity to get his hands on Goss when she fielded a ball too. You old dog....