“He would dominate no matter whether it is T20s or one-day internationals or Tests”

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Legendary West Indies pace bowler and current Bangladesh bowling coach Courtney Walsh believes that Sir Viv Richards would be a force to be reckoned with if he were playing international cricket today.

Richards, who is arguably the best batsman the West Indies ever produced, featured in 121 Test matches and 187 ODIs and averaged 50.23 and 47 respectively.

With that in mind, Walsh added that Richards would have dominated in any era of the sport.

“Sir Viv Richards would be destructive in any era in any form of cricket,” he told the Dhaka Tribune. “He was the master blaster. One of the best batsmen I have ever seen. And he would dominate no matter whether it is T20s or one-day internationals or Tests.”

Sticking on the theme of great players, Walsh was put on the hotseat when he was asked whether Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar or Steve Waugh was the best player he had ever seen.

“Could not tell you who is the best,” he said. “I played with Brian, not much against him. But I can say Lara was a genius. And the rest of the two guys; (both) of them had special qualities.

“Steve Waugh fights with guts and determination and Tendulkar also did the same with elegance. It is really hard to say which of these three was the best. They were three great cricketers. Actually all three were geniuses. I could never single out one of them.”

Walsh was then questioned about why the West Indies are failing to produce the fearsome fast bowlers they used to back in the day.

Responding to the question, Walsh said: “There are quite a few fast bowlers for the West Indies right now like Jerome Taylor, Kemar Roach etc. But yes, maybe, fast bowlers are not coming as before.

“There might be many reasons. Probably wickets these days are lot slower which (discourages) fast bowlers. And lot of guys are responding to the (shorter) formats of the game.”