Barry Richards is one of the greatest cricketers in the history of the game yet played only a handful of Test matches due to his nation's Apartheid induced absence from international cricket. Along with Graeme Pollock, Mike Procter et al., international cricket fans can only imagine the treat we missed out on when Richards was left to play domestic cricket, whether in South Africa, Australia or England, with a brief respite thanks to World Series Cricket.

This autobiography is so old that it predates World Series Cricket (Richards only refers to WSC as something that may happen) and concentrates on his youth, breaking into the Natal and national side before the aforementioned apartheid meant that he got to play for South Australia and Hampshire instead of South Africa. The book though never reaches the heights of his cricketing career and while Richards could be excused for not getting stuck into apartheid, he doesn't get stuck into apartheid. Perhaps the new biography on Richards, "Sundial in the Shade", answers more questions than "The Barry Richards Story". ( )