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[Blwe_torch]

The start of a potentially great Test career as an opening batsman ... but one that was finished within seven weeks. Barry Richards made his debut in the first Test against Australia at Cape Town, and warmed up with 29 and 32 as an awesome South African side romped home by 170 runs. He would end with a Test average of 72.57 from just four Tests. He wasn't the only debutant to be cut off before he had even reached his prime: middle-order batsman Lee Irvine, wicketkeeper Dennis Gamsy and left-arm spinner Grahame Chevalier all began similarly brief Test careers in this game. That was in 1970.