Richie Richardson made his debut for the
West Indies against India in 1983-'84 and fitted very well in the successful team led
by Clive Lloyd.

He later took over the captaincy from Viv Richards after the latter retired. He led the team well, and under him West Indies won 11 of the 27 Tests and lost just one series, to Australia. It was under Richards' captaincy that Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh had the most amount of success and Brian Lara emerged as one of the world's best batsmen.

Richie Richardson played in 86 Tests and scored 5,949 runs, including 16 hundreds and a highest score of 194 against India in Guyana in 1989. He also represented West Indies in 224 ODIs and had the distinction of playing in 3 World Cups. He retired after the team's loss in the 1996 World Cup semi-final loss to Australia.