"You come for Viv Richard mommy? You would have got her five minutes back." It's a small beige house with a white iron door. The Vivian Richards Street in east St John's is innocuous in a manner the man couldn't be. The mother isn't in this morning. No matter. The hairdresser's where she is at is only a few narrow streets away. There is something in Grathel Richards's face, especially in that proud nose, which is unmistakably Vivian. She is wearing a pink dress and white tennis shoes, and looks sturdy for her age. She was a cricketer in her day, you know. "At school, we used to have two teams – blue and pink. I used to play for pink." So that's how ol' Viv caught on? "Vooo – no boy, I don't think so."

She remembers Viv's early days playing cricket in the pastures around the area. "He wasn't a naughty boy – but we would have trouble finding him, you know. It was cricket all the time." If Grathel's husband had had things his way, the world might not have had a glimpse of Viv the cricketer. "'There's no money in cricket,' he would keep saying. 'I can't support the boy.'"

So Viv worked at a bar in town - which no longer stands - and followed that with a stint with an electrician. Sir Viv Richards, a bloomin' electrician? "Yes, his father almost sent him for higher studies to become an electrician.

"But Viv knew what he wanted. He want to be a cricketer, you know. So many people, they do a job they don't enjoy. Viv enjoyed what he did."

She remembers Len Creed, the bookmaker and talent scout who took Viv to play cricket in Somerset. "Nice man, but sometimes he drink too much." She remembers too, that she was in New York – "my husband was working there as a security guard" – at the time he was picked for West Indies. Viv's first tour was to India, more than a quarter of a century ago. "Voo boy, look how life flies by."

Grathel Richards has watched most of Viv's cricket on telly, and went down to the Recreation Ground on most occasions. She wasn't there, however, when Viv smashed that 56-ball hundred against England in 1985-86. A dear friend's funeral had kept her away. She will not forget Viv's duels with "Lill-lee, his hair used to fly, boy, and the other guy, Thomson." Brian Lara and Carl Hooper are current favourites: Sunil Gavaskar was good but boring. "Antiguans like to see them beating the ball." Nowadays, they don't send her tickets for the Test matches.

She spends her time just relaxing, doing community service, visiting the sick and singing hymns for them. Viv comes by and meets her almost everyday. Viv's wife and his daughter have already dropped by today, separately. Last week's papers were full of reports that Viv's son, Mali, may choose to play for England, but that wouldn't hurt Grathel Richards's West Indian sentiments. "No, no, he got to choose whatever he wants."

So what does it mean to Grathel Richards to be the mother of the most colossal Antiguan of all time? "I'm not a type of person that gets too excited with such things. Whatever happens, you know, it happens.

"I like to take it easy." That's the King's maa.

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com in India. His reports will appear here throughout the Test series.

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