The Master Blaster, Sir Viv Richards, is English county cricket's greatest overseas player. This, according to BBC Sport users, who voted on the best players from each of the 17 counties. Each winner then went through to an overall vote.
When the final votes were tallied, the former West Indies captain had secured an astonishing 43.2 per cent of the final vote, finishing ahead of another former West Indies captain, Sir Clive Lloyd (9.2 per cent), and ex-New Zealand all-rounder Sir Richard Hadlee who won 8.5 per cent of the vote.
Richards represented Somerset and Glamorgan during his English domestic game and was named as the best overseas player at both counties.
The 17 county winners then went through to the overall vote.
Richards won 90 per cent of the Somerset votes and 38 per cent of the votes at Glamorgan where he spent four seasons.
According to the BBC, Richards hit 58 centuries in his 14,698 first-class and 7,349 one-day runs for Somerset until 1986, when he and Garner were ousted as overseas signings, and Botham resigned in protest, but not before the county had won five one-day trophies from 1979 to 1983.
Meanwhile, Lloyd won the Lancashire vote with 66 per cent of the vote. The ‘Big Cat’ represented Lancashire from 1968 to 1986.
The left-handed batsman played 219 first-class games for Lancashire, hitting 30 centuries while scoring 12,764 runs. With Lancashire, he won the first two one-day league titles (1969 and 1970) as well as four Gillette Cups between 1970 and 1975.
Curtly Ambrose the top man at Northamptonshire with 47 per cent of the vote.
Between 1989 and 1996, Ambrose took 318 wickets in 78 first-class matches and 115 wickets in 95 one-day appearances for Northants while helping Northants' to the NatWest Trophy at Lord's in 1992.
West Indies opener Desmond Haynes won 52 per cent of the Middlesex vote. During his five seasons there between 1989 and 1994, the Barbadian batsman made 7,071 runs in 95 matches, at an average of 49.10 scoring 21 centuries along the way.
He also made six more hundreds in one-day cricket, scoring 4,105 runs for Middlesex in 96 matches, and helped Middlesex win three trophies; the County Championship in 1990 and 1993, plus the Sunday League in 1992.
Fast-bowling legend Malcolm Marshall took 826 first-class and 239 List A wickets in his 11 years with Hampshire spread between 1979 and 1993. He also scored 5,847 first-class runs, including five centuries and 26 fifties, and a further 2,073 in one-day cricket.
These significant contributions saw him win 47 per cent of the Hampshire vote.
Another West Indies fast bowling great Michael Holding won 51 per cent of the vote at Derbyshire where between 1983 and 1989; he took 224 first-class wickets in 66 games and claimed 154 one-day scalps.