The coming of Viv

Hosepipe bans? Standpipes in the streets? Ah, yes, I remember them well. Prepare for a host of anniversary paeans from us old sweats of 30 summers ago. ‘Sweat’ being the word, or ‘Phew!’ as the headlines had it all through that heatwave summer of 1976, the most relentlessly parched since records began in 1727. By all accounts, an official drought was announced as early as 15 May and (with the help of Wisden) I see that was the very day I  was dispatched to the County Ground, Southampton, to write up a newcomer of promise, an appealing, callow West Indian batsman called Vivian Richards. The summer before, I had seen a couple of his innings — short, sweet and swaggering — for Somerset, but in 1975’s inaugural World Cup he had failed to shine for the West Indies. Now on a sublime day in mid-May at Southampton, he played like a belligerent god, scoring a blazing 176 in no time.