“He has got the looks of a winner,” crooned the singer in the Only Vimal ad of the 80s starring Sir Vivian Richards. A good 25 years later, the devastating gum chewing, bowler-killing West Indian batsman showed he had lost none of his famous swagger as he strode up the stage at GoaFest2017. Boldly fielding questions on everything from IPL to matchfixing and leadership to creativity, he hit across the line as forcefully verbally as he did on the cricket pitch with his bat.

“ICC is one of the weakest organisations I have ever seen,” he said on cricket’s governing body. On IPL, he poured scorn over the size of the boundaries. “People are talking about the size of cricket bats. I am fine with that. But look at those Mickey Mouse IPL boundaries. Even at my age I can clear them. I could make a comeback with those boundaries,” he said.

The man with the deadly reflexes who ripped apart dangerous bowlers like Lillee and Thomson without wearing a helmet joked, “Maybe I was too big headed to fit into one.” Though he admitted to being cocky, he said he also eschewed helmets as he respected the Test caps too much and did not want to wear anything else.

On match-fixing, he claimed that he had never once been approached by a bookie. “Maybe, because I looked so intimidating.” He said there should be zero tolerance for fixing if the game had to be cleaned up. Although he got a blank cheque offer during the Apartheid era to play for the rebel West Indies squad in South Africa, he said he did not accept it as “I have integrity.”

Ad innings

Later speaking to Business Line on the sidelines of the event, Richards shared nuggets from his advertising innings. A memorable ad campaign he says was one he did in the 70s in Australia along with the rest of the West Indies cricket team for Brut 33, a deodarant brand that was then owned by Faberge (now it belongs to Unilever). “Our entire team had to sing a song -a calypso song for the ad. It went like this: “ Sweat all day in the burning sun, Aussie pacemen not much fun. Batsmen use Brut 33, he get a 100 runs by tea ,” he says breaking into a guffaw.

Equally unforgettable, he says was the campaign he did for Indian textile brand Vimal in the 80s. “When I first came to India, I shot an ad for Vimal that was pretty cool. We shot it around a pool, and had a very enjoyable day. I was also happy with the result because the ad brought a Caribbean flavor with the music and everything.”

Speak to Madhukar Kamath of DDB Mudra, the agency that shot the Vimal ad and he says, “My friend Shantanu Sheorey, who was singularly responsible for those films told me, “Viv was a natural. All I did was put on the music, tell Viv what I wanted and he was in the groove totally.”

Mudra shot the Only Vimal ad with Richards, Allan Border and Ravi Shastri, but Kamath says “it was the one featuring Viv ran the most.” As he says, “Who can forget that lovely jig by the pool or that gruff ‘Only Vimal’ voice over at the end!”

With that campaign Richards certainly set the pace for cricketers and brand endorsements in India. Ask him and he says he is very happy to see cricketers and brands teaming up so well in India. “It’s ultimately good for the sport too as you see cricket being promoted on television through these ads, says the man who lifted the sport to new highs. Ask him his current favourite cricketers and the answer should please all Indians – Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle! The former for his aggression and standing up for his players and the latter for his coolness.

Brand India

If he had not been a cricketer, which other sport would he have chosen to play? “Soccer,” says Sir Richards, describing how Pele is his great hero. “But now in modern days, it is Lionel Messi.”

If brand India had to be marketed what should it showcase? “Oh, its culture,” he says. “Also its food. For those of us who love spices you cannot find a better place than to come to this part of the world. I love the curried pomfret and the bhindi you get here. I have been fortunate enough to come often here to experience Indian food.”he says.

Master Storyteller

Earlier, the cricket maestro showed he could spin as good a yarn as he could weave sixes when he shared a hilarious story from his county cricket playing days. Sledging always made him see red, he said, and he would punish those who indulged in it. “Those were days when managers did not impose curfews on us,” he said, recounting how he and his Somerset team-mate and close buddy Ian Botham went out drinking the night before a match. Next morning, he turned up for the game against Glamorgan nursing a huge hangover and barely able to see anything. He lay down on the physiotherapist’s table hoping the opening pair would last long. But the wicket fell early and his turn came. “I took five minutes to take guard. I could not see anything at all and missed the first four balls. Luckily Greg Thomas bowled them all outside the off stump. But he came up and tried to intimidate me saying, “It’s red, its about five and half ounces and you are supposed to hit it.” The next ball came straight but Richards says he closed his eyes and heaved and heard a sweet sound of it meeting the middle of his bat. "The ball took off like a plane, soaring past the stadium into a little river into the dinghy of two fishermen. When the ball landed, those guys apparently said “Ah this is our first catch of the day!” said Richards. As for Thomas, Richards gave him a look and said, “Since you know the shape, size and colour – now go find it”.

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