David Richardson

Wisden overview
For the first seven years after South Africa returned from isolation, Dave Richardson was a fixture behind the stumps, his trademark sunhat and brown gloves a reassuring constant in a time of tumult. He was a wicketkeeper from the unobtrusive school who did his job immaculately and without fanfare. South Africa also had ample opportunity to call on his gritty batting talents, and it was in this role that he suffered perhaps his only noticeable case of nerves, when he reached the nineties in the third Test against New Zealand at Cape Town in 1994-95, after being dismissed in the first Test seven runs short of what would have been his maiden century. This time, Richardson duly went on to record his only Test ton. A lawyer, his articulate views on cricket issues are sought-after, and he remained involved in the game as a business agent for several current players. In January 2002 he was appointed as the ICC's first General Manager and, a decade later, its chief executive. Neil Manthorp