By Tony McWatt
Aside from his own personal contributing attributes,
Richardson credits much of his attained success to
the encouragement and mentorship he received
from many individuals including family members,
friends and especially his West Indies teammates.
Long before his eventual West Indies selection, he’d spent a
summer living in Somerset, England with his fellow Antiguan, the
now, Sir Vivian Richards. The two Antiguans spent countless hours,
endlessly talking about cricket. Richards, having become only the
second Antigua, behind Andy Roberts, to play for the West Indies
also served as an inspiration to the similarly aspiring Richardson.
There were two kernels of wise advice Richardson received
from Richards that he took to heart and held dear for the entire
duration of his career. The first was that he should never, ever
allow himself to be dependent upon anyone for his selection. “You
are supposed to pick yourself,” the great man told him. Richardson
understood immediate exactly what was meant!
From that point onwards he never ever complained if and when
he wasn’t selected. He would simply look himself in the mirror,
accept full responsibility for his situation and dedicate himself to
working that much harder to address and correct his governing
inadequacies.
The second piece of wise advice that Richards provided was simply
for him to always believe in himself and his abilities. To never let
the personal loss of form or the criticism and judgements of
others affect or undermine his self-belief.
The late great Malcolm Marshall was another of his West Indies
teammates whom Richardson also fondly remembers for his
readily available and willingly provided counsel. Desmond Haynes,
his best West Indies roommate ever, Jeffrey Dujon, Joel Garner
and even Skipper Clive Lloyd were others among his teammates
who willingly provided Richardson with advice whenever it was
needed.
Along with Eldine Baptiste, Gus Logie was another fellow West
Indian cricketer with whom Richardson became very close friends,
spending hours together discussing not only cricket but almost
every other aspect of life as well. Roger Harper was yet another
with whom he often had serious cricket discussions, particularly
concerning strategies and best practices.
Even before his West Indies Test career began, Richardson
had also benefitted from the provided counsel of many of his
Antiguan friends and teammates, Royston Otto, Gene Gould,
Hugh Gore, Michael Camacho, and Ulysses Lawrence, were
among the many whose outstanding support was of significant
benefit to his overall development. His mother before she
died had also been highly supportive of his pursuit of a cricket
career, wanting him to follow in his father’s footsteps.
He remembered and remained forever grateful to fellow
villagers in the late Dalma James, Lauchland Thomas, William
Mathew and many others who spent hours and hours bowling
to him on the road in front of his house and on the concrete
strip at Five Islands school.
He is also very grateful for the support he received from his
teachers and schoolmates at Ottos Comprehensive School.
Mr. Frances and Mr. Vincent Lewis were his first sports masters
and the latter, in particular, played a very important role in his
development, not only as a cricketer but as a footballer and
student.
Richardson attributes his achieved greatness to having always
been a student of the game of cricket. In his early days, living as
a youngster in Antigua which at the time was completely bereft
of any televisions, he read any and everything he could about
the achievements of cricket’s acknowledged great players.
He also adopted the habit of arduously studying the
techniques of players who he considered to be better than
him in whichever way! He would then try to adopt and mould
for himself their admired proficiencies. In that manner, he
was always, incessantly seeking ways to further improve and
develop his own skill sets.
Not unlike any other great player, there were times during
Richardson’s career, as outstanding as it was when his form
deserted him resulting in extending runs of poor performances
in terms of run-scoring. He now still vividly remembers one
such period where he was so out of touch that whilst bowlers
were running and about to deliver to him, the bat would feel
as if it was back-to-front in his hands. He was tempted to look
down a few times to make sure but realised that that could
have been catastrophic.
At such times the advice being provided from many well-meaning
sources was often non-productive in their tendencies
to be just as equally conflicting. Richardson quickly learnt
that his best recourse in absorbing all such provided advice
would be to sift through it for the kernels of wisdom that
might be best suited to providing a solution to the issue he
was experiencing.
The greatest cricket advice Richardson ever received during his
illustrious career was provided to him by Danny Livingstone,
the late former Antiguan National Cricketer, at a time when
he was experiencing a very bad patch and really struggling to
produce any half-decent scores. Livingstone, who represented
Antigua at both cricket and football and who also played the
former sport at the English County Championship level, had
told him “It doesn’t matter how good your technique is, if
you are not watching the ball, you will always get out quickly!”
\”Instead of playing at the ball when its pitched, you have to
watch all the way onto your bat!”
Richardson now again credits that as the greatest piece of
cricket advice he ever received. His subsequent adoption of
which became the foundation of his prodigiously reliable run
scoring.
Livingstone also advised him that whenever he was out of
knick and not watching the ball sufficiently he should do a lot
of slip catching. The simple reasoning being that if you are
in the slips and not watching the ball closely, all the way as it
come to your hands, you will eventually end up with either a
broken hand or severely damaged fingers!
Richardson quickly also adopted Livingstone’s provided slip
catching advice, becoming fully appreciative of the beneficial impact
time spent in the slips could have on his batting. He also vividly
remembers the very first time he fielded in the slips for the West
Indies, having been summoned to do so by Skipper Clive Lloyd
during a Test in Australia and as the result of several of the customary
tenants, Greenidge, Richards included, having suffered minor
injuries.
The scowl and harshly derogatory comment he received from
Lloyd, immediately after he spilt the first chance that came his
way was equally as memorable, for all the wrong reasons. Lloyd’s
reaction, however, motivated Richardson into vowing that he
would never ever drop another catch again.
The committed error of judgement in the ball’s trajectory – he had
remained crouched expecting it to be a low catch only to realize
much too late that it was headed for his throat not his knees – led to
Richardson’s realization that he had been crouching too much and
not giving himself sufficient time to react to the ball hastily flying
towards him, as it was prone to do on Australia’s pace friendly,
bouncy pitches. His subsequent adoption of a far more upright
stance gave him greater reactionary flexibility. It also allowed him
to become a pioneering expert at taking catches diving forward
which had never been done before.
Following his January 1996 retirement from international cricket,
Sir Richie was subsequently appointed as the West Indies Team
Manager in January 2011 for consecutive two-year terms. He was
later appointed by the ICC to its Elite Panel of Match Referees on
September 21, 2015.
Richardson now feels very disappointed by West Indies cricket’s
demonstrated inability, within recent times, to produce more
world-class cricketers. He suggests that while the raw talent still
obviously exists, several factors may be operating in conjunction
to prevent more of those who are so naturally blessed from
progressing to becoming great cricketers.
Foremost among such factors could be the prevailing deterioration
of pitches throughout the Caribbean. He suggests that except for
the St Lucia Darren Sammy Cricket Stadium pitch those at almost
all the Region’s Test venues have become old, worn, devoid of
pace and wholly unsuitable for the development of world-class
cricketers!
Richardson feels strongly that more resources must now be
provided and dedicated to the restoration of Caribbean pitches to
what they used to be like before. Barbados’ Kensington Oval is a
prime example of a pitch which used to be full of pace and bounce
but which from as far back as when he was captaining the West
Indies has sadly become devoid of either!
Richardson also feels that because the game has changed so
significantly within the past two to three decades and become
far more scientific, there is now a drastic need for the immediate
establishment of cricket academies throughout the Region.
“Every territory within the Caribbean should have its own Cricket
Academy!”
“There’s a lot more cricket now being played and numerous
opportunities being presented for players to make a meaningful
living by becoming professionals. In order for them to do so,
however, their natural talents have to be further developed in the
proper manner.”
Richardson’s belief is that the fundamental key to developing
talented players to their utmost potential is to emphasize, if not
insist, on their involvement in cricket’s longer formats. T20 cricket
is easy, exciting and attractive but not nearly as beneficial to long
term development as four and/or five-day matches! “We have to
create a culture within the Caribbean for players to want to play for
their country and the West Indies first and foremost before all other
franchise leagues!”
Richardson also suggests that young aspiring Caribbean cricketers
commit themselves to the dedicated hard work that is required to
not only be among the best but to also remain there for prolonged
periods as well. The glitz and glamour of professional cricket can be
alluring but it doesn’t come easy!
He tells the story as Manager of, a West Indies team that visited
Florida to experience first-hand the ultra-professional environment
of the Miami Heat NBA franchise. Alonzo Mourning, their host,
showed them around, never once speaking about money as he did
but rather about the immense pride he felt as a result of owning a
dressing-room locker, wearing the jersey and having a championship
ring for such an illustrious team.
They watched an actual Heat game as well during the visit. The most
noticeable and meaningful aspect of which was to see Chris Bosch,
who wasn’t even playing, spending every minute of the available
time before the match and during the intermission incessantly
practising his three-point shooting.
In Richardson’s view for West Indies cricket to catch up with
how the game is being played and developed in other countries,
particularly those that are at the top of the ICC’s Test rankings, far
more conducive systems and cultures have to be established from
the grassroots levels through to the very top of the existing pyramid.
The establishment of Academies and the mentorship involvement
of former great West Indies players must be core components of
the newly developed structure.
Richardson remembers having himself being excited and inspired
to the point of having goosebumps from just listening to the likes
of Sir Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Lance Gibbs and Sir Wes
Halls recall some of their most memorable moments as West
Indies cricketers. “I am not sure how many of our young
players are being sufficiently exposed to the very rich history
of West Indies cricket!”
“There now has to be a comprehensive system developed
and implemented by Cricket West Indies, supported by
governments and corporations and implemented in schools
and clubs throughout the region for our cricket to get back
to the levels of its former glory! Australia became tired of
constantly being beaten by the West Indies and adopted such
a system for their own cricket. The results now speak for
themselves as they are back to being World Champions in
almost every format!”
One of the key components for the successful establishment
of any such system would be the pivotal involvement of the
West Indies Head Coach. Although functioning primarily with
the Senior team at the pyramidal structure’s apex, he also has
to have a cadre of supporting qualified coaches at each of
the lower levels. Providing him with important information on
players as they progress through the system so that by the
time the reach to the top he knows everything he needs to
know about any and every player.
“The petty politics and insularities have to be forever cast
aside. Everyone needs to be on the same page and working
together towards the fulfilment of an established common
objective!”
Words of wisdom from Sir Richie Richardson, a now
deservedly knighted former West Indies captain and batsman
of the highest order.