The greatest ODI XI of all time

#4 Sir Viv Richards

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Smokin Joe – Smoked the ball to all parts of the ground

The name in itself is enough to explain the choice. King Viv is the greatest ODI batsman of all time.

The game has not seen another batsman with the swag that King Viv exhibited. Sir Viv described himself as an artist at work while batting, he was an artist no doubt, at the same time he was ruthless, cold-blooded and brutal the way he dismantled bowling attacks after attacks throughout his career. He was additionally motivated whilst playing in England due the prevalent racism, then, making him all the more dangerous.

Viv Richards - ODI numbers’ in England.

Matches	Inns	NO	50s	100s	HS	Runs	Avg	Cat
31	29	8	5	4	189*	1345	64.05	11

“There have been giants of the game, contemporary and since, batsmen of vast pedigree and achievement: Greg Chappell, Lara, Tendulkar, Ponting, Dravid, Kallis, Sangakkara, Hayden and others. Each on his day could reduce an attack to rubble. But Richards had an aura given to no other. Truly he was scary." – Mike Selvey, former English cricketer and a cricket writer now, aptly describes the greatness of Viv.

Richards scored at an astronomical strike rate of 90 runs per 100 balls, when all his peers were hovering in the 60’s and low 70’s. He was well ahead of time and for a period of 15 years he was at the Zenith of batsmanship. Had there been T20 cricket during his time, we might have seen an even destructive avatar of the king.

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	0
Vivian Richards	1975-1991	187	167	24	6721	189*	47.00	7451	90.20	11	45	7

He has won 2 World Cups, won the Man of the Match in the 1979 Final scoring a splendid 138* against the Englishmen at Lords.

Contenders: Javed Miandad, Brian Lara, Dean Jones, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Aravinda de Silva