Ian Michael Richards (born 9 December 1957) is a former English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. Richards was a left-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace. He was born in

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England. It is on the northern banks of the River Tees, part of the Teesside built-up area. The town had an estimated ...

, County Durham. Richards made his first-class debut for

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

against

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1976. He played first-class cricket for Northamptonshire from 1976 to 1979, making 23 first-class appearances. In his first-class career for the county, he scored 467 runs at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 22.23, with a high score of 50. This score, his only first-class fifty, came against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

in 1976. With the ball, he took 7 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 28.71, with best figures of 4/57. His

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

debut also came in 1976, when Northamptonshire played Nottinghamshire in the John Player League. Richards made nine further List A appearances for the county, the last of which came against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

in the 1979 John Player League. In his ten List A matches for Northamptonshire, he scored 44 runs at an average of 8.80, with a high score of 18. With the ball, he took 2 wickets at an average of 76.00, with best figures of 1/22. He later joined Durham, making his debut for the county in the 1981

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

, playing a match each against

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

. He played Minor counties cricket for Durham in 1981 and 1982, making six appearances. He made a single List A appearance for the county in the

1982 NatWest Trophy The 1982 NatWest Trophy was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 3 July and 4 September 1982. It was the 2nd NatWest Trophy, after it had been renamed from the Gillette Cup the previous year. The tournament ...

against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. In this match, he scored 9 runs before being dismissed by Kevin Mackintosh, with Surrey winning by 111 runs.

References

External links

Ian Richards
at

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Ian Richards
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Ian 1957 births Living people Cricketers from Stockton-on-Tees English cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Durham cricketers Cricketers from Yorkshire