If you were going to tell the history of cricket in a handful of objects, the purple, wide-brimmed hat would be one of them
There’s solace in the old clips, especially of cricket. It’s not that they’re all that comforting, as such – not if you followed England, anyway – more they carry you back to a time when your biggest worries were wondering when Mike Atherton’s back would give in, why the selectors insisted on making Alec Stewart keep wicket and whether Mark Ramprakash would ever make a Test century.
Less the stress, this time around, of fretting. I was watching some the other day and there was Richie Richardson heaving Australia’s attack all around the Bourda. Lord, did anyone ever hit the ball through the off like Richardson? He went for the ball as if he caught it stealing from him. That was in the early 1990s, when he was in his prime. Viv Richards was on the way down, Brian Lara on the way up, and Richardson was the one you wanted to watch. “One of my all-time favourite batsmen,” says Mike Selvey, the Guardian’s former cricket correspondent. “One of the few batsmen worth forking out money to see.”
Written by Andy Bull
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/apr/07/richie-richardson-west-indies-sun-hat-cricket under the title “The prime of Richie Richardson: one man and his West Indies sun hat | Andy Bull”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
