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Barry Anderson RICHARDS

When Barry Richards joined Hampshire in 1968 it was the first year of automatic registrations of overseas stars. Hampshire had hoped to sign Clive Lloyd but, discovering he had joined Lancashire, they signed this promising young man instead and, for a decade, Richards graced the county game as one of the most naturally talented batsmen ever to play cricket.

The final story is more complex however. In 1968 he began batting at number four but soon moved up to open with Barry Reed and finished that year with 2,395 runs – no one has exceeded that total for Hampshire since and with the curtailed programme, no one will.

Hampshire finished fifth that year and, in the following season, were the runners-up in the new Sunday League. The team were in transition as most of the last members of the 1961 Champions departed, although Peter Sainsbury was still there in 1973 when Richards opened with the young West Indian Gordon Greenidge and Hampshire clinched their second title. There was a deep irony in this wonderfully productive partnership because Richards, having impressed hugely in his debut Test series in Australia in 1969/70 would never play in Test cricket again because of his native South Africa’s apartheid laws at the time.

In that first Test series, Richards scored 29, 37, 140, 65, 35, 81 and 126 and his country won the series 4-0. For Hampshire, Richards continued to score in a similar fashion in most forms of the game and they were deeply unlucky to finish runners-up in the 1974 Championship. They were third in 1975 when the Sunday League became their first limited overs trophy but, in truth, that side of the mid-1970s frustrated their followers in the shorter form – especially by never reaching a Lord’s Final.

Nonetheless, Richards played some fine short-form innings, perhaps none better than a superb century at Bournemouth against Lancashire in a 1972 Quarter-Final. Richards made 129 but no one else reached 30 and Lancashire triumphed. Sadly, in his three Semi Final innings for the county, Richards managed just 24 runs – a record similar to fellow South African-born Kevin Pietersen in Hampshire’s ‘big’ limited overs matches.

By contrast, deprived of the supreme ‘Test’, he relished the visits of the Australians. In 1972 he attacked Lillee and the others, scoring 73 and three years later Thomson had 0-80 as Richards made 96 leading Hampshire at 4.5 runs per over. He was also a very good off-spin bowler, taking 7-63 against the Rest of the World at Bournemouth in 1968 but he was more content fielding at slip and his record of 264 catches in 204 first-class matches is among the county’s best.

Richards scored 240 at Coventry in the title-winning season and his two innings against Bedi were vital in Hampshire’s victory over second-placed Northants in August after which the Championship seemed a certainty. In the following year he made a double century against Notts when only one other man reached double figures and three times he carried his bat.

1977 was his benefit year and last full season for the county but at the age of 32 he took advantage of the ‘Packer Revolution’ and faced exclusion from the county game. His autobiography indicated that he would not be devastated as he was finding the competition by turns, too easy and too boring. In 1978 he returned but, mid-season, with Hampshire challenging for the Sunday League title, he walked out and, apart from a couple of seasons in the early 1980s in South Africa, his cricket career came to an end.

In later life he proved himself an astute and articulate commentator and he served a period as Hampshire’s President. He could frustrate spectators but only because many of us suspected he was the finest batsman ever to grace the Hampshire side. That did not always translate into runs scored but, when it did, there was no finer sight on a cricket field.