Watch Out

AL Barry Richards hardly played any Test cricket but we know what he could do and my abiding memory of him was in one of Kerry Packer's Super Tests. That was a brutal match and Richards batted all day for 120 in one of the supreme exhibitions of technique.

MA Number 3, and I'm going to make a very strong claim for Viv Richards. I've not seen a better batsman. He was carrying the hopes of a small nation and the aura he gave off was different to anything I've seen. And he batted without a helmet. Batsmen these days aren't asked the same questions of courage that Viv and his ilk were.

AL Well I think we're agreed he's in the side but I wonder where. I've got him in at No 4 with Tendulkar at 3.

CMJ I have Richards at 3. John?

Patrick Kidd John's the only one to have seen Don Bradman ...

JW And I've got him on my list.

MA That throws a spanner in the works. I don't think we can argue.

JW I saw him play in 1934 when he was lbw to Dyson against Oxford.

AL As recently as that?

JW Then I saw him in the same fixture in 1938 when he was lbw again. And I saw him after the war in his last match in Canberra and sadly Brian Statham got him out for nought. He was about 53 and had been talked into playing by Bob Menzies, the Prime Minister. They say he looked marvellous in the nets.

MA Well we can't not have the Don. But can we have Viv at 4?

JW Oh God yes, we've got to, but what about Tendulkar?