'A man who always gave his all for the Club' - Glamorgan shares unseen picture of Viv Richards on his 70th birthday

Sir Vivian Richards is one of the finest batters to have played the game at the highest level. He was the backbone of the then West Indies batting lineup in the 70s and 80s and had the ability to single-handedly decimate any bowling attack. Richards retired with 8,540 Test runs and 6,721 ODI runs. The batting legend also has 36,212 first-class and 16,995 List-A runs to his name.

While he had announced his retirement from international cricket way back in 1991, he officially bid adieu from all forms of the game two years later in 1993. Meanwhile, the English county club Glamorgan came forward and paid tribute to the Caribbean batting megastar on the occasion of his 70th birthday on March 7.

Glamorgan Cricket gives a special tribute to Sir Vivian Richards

As birthday wishes poured in for Viv Richards from all corners of the world, the Glamorgan also came up with a surprise gift for the legendary cricketer on social media. Taking to the micro-blogging site Twitter, the iconic club posted an image of Richards is seen lying tired and exhausted in the dressing room wearing the club’s jersey. “A man who always gave his all for the Club. His 3 seasons with us concluded with that famous win in 1993 as he led us to our first ever one-day trophy. Happy birthday Viv”, the caption read.

In September 1993, Glamorgan lifted their maiden silverware by defeating Kent at Canterbury to win the 1993 AXA Equity & Law League. However, the most memorable moment of that triumph featured Sir Vivian Richards and the then first-class cricketer from Wales Tony Cottey sprinting back to the pavilion after hitting the winning runs.

After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Kent were restricted to 200/9 from their 50 overs with Carl Hooper top-scoring for them with 60 runs. In reply, Glamorgan got the job done in the 48th over by six wickets riding on unbeaten knocks of 46 and 33 from Richards and Cottey, respectively.