Barry Richards vs Greenidge

[capt_Luffy]

A Calypso by, I don't even know, is your proff that you're not the only one who rated the series?

Are you really this dense?

 

[Coronis]

I also have an anti-Richards agenda because I think his strokeplay is butt ugly tbh.

Honestly I always found some of the batsmen considered ugly somewhat beautiful to watch. Such a subjective thing strokeplay surely? Yet historically has been such a factor rating players.

Sorry if it extended the length of your attention span.

And that we all just can't just be snippy and sarcastic like yourself.

Why you gotta take everything so personally and get so insulted at tiny jokes all the time man? No sense of humour.

You could be. If you really tried. I believe in you.

 

[peterhrt]

@peterhrt If you don't mind me asking, how was Boycott viewed in the 70s in comparison to Barry Richards and Sunil Gavaskar?

Again, opinions varied around the world. In England between 1970 and 1976 Barry Richards would be rated comfortably ahead of the other two. There has been some interesting debate here about speed of scoring. Slow batsmen escaped criticism before the war. The 1960s saw a game in decline with slow batting blamed for many of the problems. That spilled over into the 1970s. Some saw Boycott as manfully carrying weak batting line-ups. Others believed he killed games by occupying the crease for the sake of it. Lillee said the Australians never feared him. Nevertheless, he was not easy to get out and his defensive technique was admired. He also played the hook shot well.

It took time for the English to appreciate Gavaskar fully. His 101 at Old Trafford in 1974 was a classic on a difficult surface, but before the 1979 series he was averaging 30 In Tests in England. With their experience of county cricket the Pakistanis were rated higher. At this stage Zaheer was averaging 71 in England with two double hundreds, Majid was as good as anyone against fast bowling and Mushtaq a patient master on greentops. Packer signed all three plus Asif Iqbal, and ignored Gavaskar.

The traditional cricket world closed ranks against Packer and talked up those who hadn't signed. The four leading Test run-scorers during the Packer period were all Indian, Gavaskar leading the way with twelve hundreds and an average of 70. Botham and Gower made good starts to their careers, as did Border. Botham v Gavaskar was the key battle of the 1979 series, culminating at The Oval when Botham dismissed Gavaskar for a superb 221 as India finished just nine runs short of a record fourth innings chase of 438.

It was probably this series when Gavaskar overtook Boycott in English eyes. Hutton named him the leading current batsman. Barry Richards was playing club cricket and no longer in the picture.

 

[peterhrt]

I also recall one of his posts when he spoke of a world XI being selected in the early 70's, where Barry's name was the first on the list. I'll have to look for it.

Daily Telegraph Magazine World XI June 1975:
Barry Richards, Barlow, Kallicharran, Greg Chappell, Lloyd*, Greig, Knott+, Lillee, Thomson, Bedi, Chandrasekhar. 12th man: Asif Iqbal.

Procter would have replaced Greig but wasn't fit.

 

[kyear2]

Again, opinions varied around the world. In England between 1970 and 1976 Barry Richards would be rated comfortably ahead of the other two. There has been some interesting debate here about speed of scoring. Slow batsmen escaped criticism before the war. The 1960s saw a game in decline with slow batting blamed for many of the problems. That spilled over into the 1970s. Some saw Boycott as manfully carrying weak batting line-ups. Others believed he killed games by occupying the crease for the sake of it. Lillee said the Australians never feared him. Nevertheless, he was not easy to get out and his defensive technique was admired. He also played the hook shot well.

It took time for the English to appreciate Gavaskar fully. His 101 at Old Trafford in 1974 was a classic on a difficult surface, but before the 1979 series he was averaging 30 In Tests in England. With their experience of county cricket the Pakistanis were rated higher. At this stage Zaheer was averaging 71 in England with two double hundreds, Majid was as good as anyone against fast bowling and Mushtaq a patient master on greentops. Packer signed all three plus Asif Iqbal, and ignored Gavaskar.

The traditional cricket world closed ranks against Packer and talked up those who hadn't signed. The four leading Test run-scorers during the Packer period were all Indian, Gavaskar leading the way with twelve hundreds and an average of 70. Botham and Gower made good starts to their careers, as did Border. Botham v Gavaskar was the key battle of the 1979 series, culminating at The Oval when Botham dismissed Gavaskar for a superb 221 as India finished just nine runs short of a record fourth innings chase of 438.

It was probably this series when Gavaskar overtook Boycott in English eyes. Hutton named him the leading current batsman. Barry Richards was playing club cricket and no longer in the picture.

As usual, well explained.

I think Sunny was a brilliant batsman, borderline top 10 if not 10th.

A decent amount of his reputation and a sizeable percentage of his numbers were made in less than challenging conditions. He filled his boots during WSC and in '71.

Outside of the views of Hutton, who admired him for being similar to himself, he was never seen as the best batsman in the world and it's questionable if he was ever fully 2nd to either Richards, with Chappell and Border primarily holding those distinctions.

Basically why I rate Sunny squarely with Hammond, Chappell and Ponting. Probably in-between the first two. All in all they're 10 to 14.

I imagine your ranking greatly vary.