Barry Richards is a South-African former cricket player and sports speaker whose professional career spanned three decades. Now working as a broadcaster, pundit and cricket speaker Barry Richards remains one of the most easily recognisable faces of his generation. With only a brief Test career during the 1970’s, Richards’ international career was abruptly interrupted by the South African ban from cricket in opposition of the apartheid laws and prejudices. Richards moved to Britain where he continued his professional playing career and established himself as a sports speaker.
Barry was a prominent player in county cricket for many years, playing for the Hampshire cricket team. With this team, he won them an astonishing 2395 runs in his first season alone. This was particularly significant as it was 1968 more than anybody else in the country had ever scored. During the 1970s Barry began to establish one of the most successful opening partnerships for his country, alongside Gordon Greenidge who was a West Indian batsman.
From 1970 to 1971 Barry played as an overseas player for South Australia. Barry was a very prominent player for the team, scoring 325 runs in a single day and hitting 1538 runs in 10 matches of a season. After returning to play for his home team, Natal, Barry Richards enjoyed a successful career until the mid-1980’s when he retired from cricket. He was however determined to stay involved in the sport, and so Barry cultivated himself a prolific and impressive career as a cricket after-dinner speaker.
Beginning his work as a cricket speaker by working for the South African Broadcasting Company, Richards quickly became one of the most popular sports speakers and specialist cricket broadcasters in his home nation. Despite a dispute with South Africa’s MNet Supersport Richards’ career continued to improve and in the 1990’s he began working as a broadcaster and cricket speaker in the UK. He has supplied commentary for Test Match Special, Channel 4 and Five, supplying the UK with his expertise and passion surrounding cricket. Barry Richards is available for hire as an after-dinner speaker or as a special guest for any kind of corporate event, function or conference.
How to hire Barry Richards
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Barry Richards for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
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