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King Richards turns 50

Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thompson, Bob Willis, Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner...the list can go on and on. All these great fast bowlers played in the same era as Richards and not once in his career did he wear a helmet.

On the contrary he took them head on and often gained the psychological edge for his team.

One particular instance that comes to mind is from the 1979-80 series against Australia. Rodney Hogg had hit Richards a painful blow to the face; the next ball was smashed for a six and Richards continued to wreak havoc with Hogg's bowling figures till he left the field with a back injury. At that point he had conceded 59 runs off his six overs.

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