IT seems inconceivable for a batsman to have even the slightest regret when he walks off the field after setting a batting record like the one Stephen Cook did with his massive 390.

One wonders, however, whether Cook will harbour a few small regrets down the road just like the man he took the record from.

For almost 40 years the landmark for the highest first-class score by a South African belonged to the extravagantly gifted Barry Richards.

The Natalian made history when he plundered 356 for South Australia against Western Australia in the 1970/71 season.

What carried that definitive innings into cricket’s folklore was that 325 of Richards’s runs came in a relatively short 5½-hour day against a high-quality attack. It was only a dodgy umpiring decision that stopped Richards in his tracks and removed the possibility of him reaching the 400-run mark. His 356 had come in just six hours and 12 minutes. But more of that carnage later.

While records are there to be broken, a certain amount of nostalgia is bound to creep in when a special record like Richards’s tumbles.

There was praise for young Lions batsmen Stephen Cook from all quarters last weekend when he made that massive innings against the Warriors.

It was an innings of colossal proportions and when Cook was eventually dismissed, he had batted just two minutes short of 14 hours.

It was the longest individual innings played by a batsman in South African domestic cricket and the fourth longest in the history of the game. If the attention of the national selectors needs to be grabbed by the weight of runs scored then Cook, who has yet to play Test cricket, has certainly put his name into the hat.

Some years after his triple century, Richards was asked whether he had any regrets about his special match in Perth.

He replied that he wished he had hit 50 boundaries in his innings. Richards smashed 48 fours and a six before he was dismissed. Talk about being hard on oneself!

And what will Cook have to say in 40 years about his mammoth innings in East London?

He is bound to reflect that he did not become only the 11th batsman in the history of the game to go past 400. He may never get a better chance.

It’s also unlikely that Cook’s name, apart in the instance of this record, will ever be mentioned in the same breath as that of Richards.

When Cristiano Ronaldo was at the height of his powers at Manchester United, one English journalist took exception to him being compared to George Best.

He retorted by saying that in Ronaldo, United had at last found somebody capable of tying Best’s boot laces. Perhaps it would be unfair to say the same about the young Cook.

Richards will have no regrets that his innings has been overhauled by the run-hungry Cook.

The former Springbok opener always made it clear that the only statistic that interested him was the “entertainment barometer”.

It’s this quality that set Richards apart from his peers.