Viv Richards turns 70: How West Indies star forged one of the great careers

Viv Richards was the most destructive batter of his generation and not a man to be messed with on or off the pitch.

The imposing former West Indies captain celebrated his 70th birthday on Monday as the stadium in Antigua which bears his name geared up to stage the opening Test against England.

The three-match series starts on Tuesday and the winners will go on to lift the Richards-Botham Trophy.

Special guests of honour Sir Vivian Richards and Lord Ian Botham arrive ahead of the newly minted Richards-Botham Trophy unveiling! #WIvENG pic.twitter.com/TFiEjm6gLv

— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) March 6, 2022

And how the Windies would love someone in the same menacing mould to call on this week.

Friends may find him fun and fiercely loyal. But opponents just found him fierce.

None more so than the England bowlers who were on the receiving end of a 56-ball century in Antigua in 1986 – a Test record for the fastest hundred which took 30 years to be broken by New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum.

During his peak years, from 1976 to 1988, Richards scored 22 hundreds in 92 Tests at an average of more than 55. His 121-Test career brought 8,540 runs at an average of 50.23, while he boasted a one-day international average of 47 alongside a strike-rate of 90.

He is the only Windies captain never to lose a Test series and was defeated just eight times in the 50 matches he led the side.

But his impressive statistics alone tell far from the full story of a man named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century in 2000.

The charismatic cricketer memorably never wore a helmet at the crease and chewed gum incessantly while batting. “It made you feel a little cool,” he said.

And Richards’ public stance against apartheid by turning down a