Van der Bijl bowled to all these batsmen, dismissing all except Chappell and Zaheer. He caused plenty of problems when bowling for Middlesex in 1980 and troubled Boycott on the first rebel tour. Pollock came up against Snow and Underwood in England in 1965, taking a hundred off one and scoring 203* against the other. He also faced various touring sides to South Africa that included these two and Lillee.
Richards' lack of tact ruffled a few feathers. He claimed to find county cricket easy and boring, requiring the challenge of a top bowler or tricky wicket. Sometimes he would cruise to about sixty then seem deliberately to get out. He also claimed to be underpaid. Noting this, South Australia offered him a dollar a run and he averaged over a hundred for them. In December 1966 Richards made an effortless 107 in 160 minutes against the visiting Australians and was duly selected to make his Test debut a couple of weeks later. But drunken misdemeanours after the match almost landed him in prison and he was left out of the series on disciplinary grounds. Then the 1968-69 series against England was cancelled so he had to wait till 1970 to play his first Test.
Highest scores in the matches featured in the earlier post:
Barry Richards 356 v Lillee
Boycott 261* v Roberts and Holding
Greg Chappell 246* v Roberts
Zaheer 230* (and 104* in same match) v Underwood
Turner 228* v Procter
Gavaskar 228 v Chandrasekhar
Barry Richards 224 v Snow
Barry Richards 219 v Procter
Barry Richards 207 v Lillee
Zaheer 205* (and 108* in same match) v Underwood
Pollock 203* v Underwood
@capt_Luffy this answers the Zaheer question.
And yeah, while I wasn't aware of the averages, I was aware of some of the scores Barry had against said bowlers, there's also highlights on YouTube.
I first heard of Richards decades ago in a book called, I want to say the no. 1s. Think there was a picture of Curly's wrist on the cover, could be wrong.
Was fascinated how a cricket with four tests could make that list. So you read more, and you ask questions and then YouTube, listen to guys here who've seen him actually play.
You see someone rated highly, then you try to understand how he could make a Cricinfo all time 2nd team and it's not that hard to figure out how and why.
Lillee of all people (and for obvious reasons) rated the guy on par with Viv and Sobers as far as batsmen who he's bowled to. This isn't someone watching from mid off, this is a top 10 pacer telling us how hard he was to get out, and what he could do to him.
The numbers are obviously there, so is the talent should one care to spend a couple hours on YouTube, so is the peer rating and journalists reviews. Yeah, I think he was a top 10 batsman of all time.