Viv Richards: A night of tribute (2 April 1998)

Wednesday, April 1, 1998

Viv Richards: A night of tribute to the 'Master Blaster'

By GARTH WATTLEY

IT was already dark in St John's when the van swept into Viv Richards Street. It cruised past the modest lighted wooden structure that is the Richards family home. Ma Richards, still keeping the hearth warm, was not in.

She had gone to the sprawlingly elegant multi-purpose centre down by the waterfront to hear men shed more light on the greatness of her son, Viv-the "Master Blaster".

But really, the evening was about much more than I.V.A Richards. It was primarily the book-launching of A Spirit of Dominance, compiled by Dr Hilary Beckles, head of the cricket studies department at UWI, Cave Hill, to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the West Indian master's debut in Test cricket.

But while the presence of Viv and the memories of his exploits hung heavy in the hall, speaker after speaker recalling his glorious past, the evening was haunted by the spirit of Malcolm Richards, Viv's father. Or rather, by the spirit of West Indies cricket's excluded ones. It was Tim Hector, senator, journalist, cricket student, who first raised the issue.

"People like to say," he begins, "that the Board abandons its cricketers. I would rather like to say that the West Indies abandons its cricketers after they are finished playing.

"But this (launch) represents a change. We are beginning to recognise that cricketers are representatives of the Caribbean, who said something about us, who defined something about us. And we should try to find out what meaning their lives had beyond the mere bat and ball."

Hector's comments were prompted by personal experience. He had been part of the lecture series in Dominica that gave birth to the book. And in Roseau, talk of Viv went on until the morning hours.

The memory of that night prompted Hector to say, "The society continues to ignore its great performers. But Hilary Beckles, representing the University of the West Indies, was able to promote a consciousness that had been growing in the West Indies."

It was that consciousness that had brought the small but intrigued gathering to the hall on this eve-of-Test match night. And Hector took the opportunity to remind the audience that in Leewards cricket there was life before Richards and Andy Roberts. There was Malcolm Richards.

He describes the nowdeceased patriarch of the Richards clan as, "arguably the greatest all rounder the Leewards have produced". Then he offers this comparison.

"I think Viv was the better batsman. But I think it will be difficult to say that at Leewards level, Malcolm was not the better bowler and certainly the better fielder. And that is saying a whole lot if you know what Viv Richards was like on the field!"

It is food for thought.

So is the observation that "Malcolm must have felt very bitterly about his inability to go to the top."

Exclusion. It is a major peeve of West Indians in the chain from Grenada to Antigua.

And as Hector relates, the Richards home felt the hurt. "Vivian Richards grew up in a home that felt very consciously that the Leewards had been excluded from that great family of West Indies cricket."

That hurt passed from father to son. It was Malcolm's pain, Hector tells us, that spawned Viv's passion, Leewards pride.

"He and his father...represented a kind of Leewards spirit. Malcolm wanted him (Viv) to make 2,000 in an innings if possible because he was establishing something about the small islands and their right to enter the field of modern Test cricket at the highest level. I contend that there must have been a particular spirit in the Leewards, something unique which Malcolm Richards and others fostered." Hector goes on.

"When we speak of Viv, two things come together-the colonials still dominate, still have their policies of exclusion-and we in turn, following them, also developed policies of exclusion. And I contend that he came to the cricket with the passion of people who have been excluded. He came to cricket with the passion of his father." But beyond the "small island" struggle which Viv fought with the bat, Hector also attacks the "abandonment", of West Indian greats once they had left the field of play. He argues passionately that their hard-won skills can be made effective use of today.

"The great batsman must be able to handle himself in any crisis," stated Hector, quoting CLR James. "Managers of banks can't do that," he contends. "Is that (skill) only applicable to cricket or ought it not to be used by the society? Are they not able to handle other crises in society having developed that kind of acuity of mind?"

Murmurs of approval were wafting round the room now. And they grew louder after his next declaration.

Calling for the removal of "mediocre persons that fill the important posts today" Hector says, "I want to suggest to you, that if we put Viv Richards and Gary Sobers into the organisation of our youth, not as cricketers, not as coaches, but as persons relating to them in whatever...I believe the dangerous social tendencies we see in our youth today will be put on the defensive."

There is a burst of applause from the approving audience. The "Master" himself remained calm, except for the hint of a smile playing at his lips, threatening to betray his inner thoughts. Perhaps he was thinking of his latest "exclusion", and a possible role for him in shaping West Indies cricket's future.

Or maybe it was just Malcolm on his mind.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)