Clifton James "Jack" Richards is an English former first-class cricketer, who played in eight Testsand 22 ODIs for England from 1981 to 1988. He was a wicket-keeper and a useful lower-middle order batsman, who made 133 for England against Australia at the WACA, Perth in 1987. The cricket correspondent Colin Bateman remarked, "England's most gifted wicketkeeper-batsman since Alan Knott. Always competitive, often outspoken and sometimes disruptive, Richards was alert and agile with the gloves although prone to the odd lapse".
Life and career
Jack Richards was a neat and efficient wicketkeeper, taller than most at 5' 11", whose excellent footwork and agility' allied to his effective middle-order batting, made him a genuine England contender. His first tour for England was to India and Sri Lanka as Bob Taylor's understudy in 1981-82. In 1986, when topping 1000 runs in the summer, he played two ODIs against New Zealand. That winter he was picked to tour Australia as Bruce French's deputy. Pressed into action at Brisbane in an England side bereft of runs, he did enough to secure his place. The tour was a success, with England winning the Ashes under Mike Gatting, and Richards to the fore. In his second Test, at Perth, he hammered 133 in exactly four hours, and ended the series with 264 runs at 37.71. But his form tailed off at the end of that tour, and although he played in the ODIs against Pakistan at the start of 1987, he lost his Test place to French, keeping at Leeds. Richards toured New Zealand that winter, again as French's No. 2, and made two more appearances the following summer against West Indies. But despite a record-breaking benefit at Surrey, he retired even though he was just 30 at the time. Richards was born in Cornwall, learning his cricket at Penzance. After quitting professional cricket, Richards went to work in Rotterdam as an operations manager at the Van Weeldeinternational shipping company, owned and run by former captain of the Dutch national cricket team Robert van Weelde. He now lives in Belgium with his Dutch wife, running a successful Rotterdam shipping firm in neighbouring Holland and director of an international recruitment and crewing agency. He was the manager of the Belgian Under-16s rugby union team, and still is the president of the Antwerp Cricket Club. He was also the head coach for the Belgium national cricket team.
