Dean Jones names Sir Vivian Richards as his favourite batsman of his era

Back in the 1970s and 80s, run-making wasn’t all that easy. The bowlers dictated terms and hardly allowed looseners for the batters to take advantage of. Scores of even 200 seemed tough to achieve. In those times, there existed one batsman, who could’ve wreaked havoc even in the current era. He was Sir Vivian Richards, the legendary and swashbuckling West Indies batsman.

The Antigua-born had notched in excess of 53,000 runs in over 1,000 matches, combining the first-class and List A formats. To go with the gigantic number of runs, Richards was also able to muster 140 centuries and 271 half-centuries. Once he was at the crease, the fielders and bowlers used to be on their toes. The most astonishing part was his strike-rate, which shows 90.20.

Vivian Richards- A class act

Had he played in this era the strike-rate could well be around the 150-mark. In Test cricket and ODIs, Richards had top scores of 291 and 189* runs respectively. Recently, Faisal Iqbal, a former Pakistan cricketer, asked Dean Jones on Twitter about his favourite batter of his generation.

Iqbal took to Twitter and wrote, “Who was your favorite batsman in your era and why?” Replying to the same, Jones didn’t have hesitation of naming Sir Viv.

Here is Dean Jones’ reply

Dean Jones wasn’t a random name either during his playing days. He made his Test debut way back in 1984 when the Caribbean team played Australia in Port of Spain. In the ODI format, the Victoria-born made debut in 1984 itself against Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval. From there on, he turned out to be a stalwart of Australian cricket. His career spanned 10 years until April 1994.

He played 52 Tests and 164 ODIs in which he churned 3631 and 6068 runs respectively to go with 18 centuries and 60 half-centuries. Jones recently was the coach of the Karachi Kings in the 2020 edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Earlier, he was the coach of the Islamabad United. But he has made it clear that he doesn’t have plans of becoming the coach of the Pakistan national team.