Vivid

Ian Botham, Viv Richards and apparently Ian Botham's agent: resplendent in whites and stripes.

via the fascinating tumblr of 1980's cricketers. check it out for more candid shots.

Pitch Invasion

A pitch invasion of the sort you just don't see anymore, after The West Indies beat England in the final of the 1979 Cricket World Cup.

more great images of the 1979 WC

The Teams

The Teams, 1983 Cricket World Cup, England.

via

Flying Fish

 

A collection of images of Jonty Rhodes mid-air, with the ability to jump both vertically and horizontally.

Jonty Rhodes was cricket's first real fielder, before him, it was just something to do while waiting for your turn to bowl. Rhodes literally flew into legendary stratospheres with his full-body diving run out of Inzamam-ul-Haq in the 1992 World Cup match between South Africa and Pakistan. Instead of attempting to throw down the stumps as was common practice for a run out, he sprinted towards them, ball in hand, and hurtled towards the wickets - a full-stretched flying dive - like a human cannonball, his entire body parallel to the grass beneath him, and resoundly clattered into the stumps and Inzamam was on his way back to the pavilion.

"Out of the corner of the eye I saw Jonty diving in. I'd never seen a bloke dive at the wickets ever before."

He leapt like a salmon, or a dog catching a frisbee, flying through the air as if a Hollywood action film explosion was propelling him.

When I represented Auckland in cricket as a teenager I was once compared to Jonty Rhodes in the field. It was the best cricket compliment I had ever received.