Barry Richards was an amazing player, most likely the finest batsman of his time, whose Test career was limited to four matches owing to South Africa’s policy of apartheid which caused them to be banned from international cricket.
It takes a leap of faith to picture that consistent entertainers at the domestic level would, offered the opportunity, excel at the worldwide level too.
National selectors have to make the leap all the time– sometimes they see in their mind’s eye an effective career for a gamer despite a modest domestic record, and at other times they intuit that a statistically significant record in domestic matches is no assurance of success at the greatest level.
