The West Indian cricket team of the 70's and the 80's were blessed with an extravagant force of nature for a bowling line-up, and a battering ram for a batting line up. The general, on-the-surface impression is that amongst a batting line up that stands on pillars such as Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge, Alvin Kallicharan you would tend to get a little lost or dwarfed. But much to Viv's credit, he stands the tallest even in a batting line up filled with the Gods of the game.

Through the course of his career, Richards contributed a very significant 15.5 points to the West Indian team batting average, in both, Tests and ODI's. That is, Richards, with a Test career average of 50.23, and an ODI career average of 47, averaged a solid 15.5 runs more than the West Indian team average. It is interesting to note that the West Indian team batting average then was 34.3 in Tests, lower than India's current Test average (36.1). Of course, given the various factors involved - the game has, in general, become more batting oriented now, the West Indian bowling attack then was so good that they, possibly seldom had to score too much themselves - it is best not to read too much into it.

But what is clear is that Lloyd's Invincibles depended a lot more on Richards than one would expect.

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