Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Watching the Australian bowler Kane Richardson bowl at the Oval reminded me of a giant of the 19th century

The great English fast bowler Tom Richardson, who bowled many thousands of overs at this very ground - The Oval, for both Surrey and England

Very few people have heard of Tom Richardson in our times

Not even cricket aficionados

But he was a giant. Both literally and figuratively, standing at well over 6 feet

Played 358 First class games. Took 2104 wickets at an average of 18.4

Also played in just 14 test matches (not a small number in 19th century), but met with less success taking 88 wickets, at 25.22

Not bad but not great

But Richardson was definitely a legend.

When Ralph Barker wrote his great classic - Ten Great Bowlers in the 1960s - on ten legendary bowlers before WW2, Tom Richardson was one of the chosen names

When Neville Cardus was asked by WIsden to select his six greatest cricketers of the century between 1864 and 1964, Cardus picked Richardson among his six

The other five were WG Grace, Hobbs, Trumper and Bradman, Barnes

Illustrious company

Richardson was an out-and-out fast bowler who played for Surrey all his life.

He was partnered for Surrey and England by his rival William Lockwood, also a fast bowler but of a different type

Richardson and Lockwood belong to a curious period in English cricket history - the 1890s - which is widely regarded as the Golden Age of fast bowling

It was preceded by the 1880s when slow medium pace predominated, and succeeded by the 1910s / 20s/30s when spin took over and fast bowling declined

The pre-eminence of pace in the 1890s was summed up by the great CB Fry, who wrote this in 1939, wherein he unfavorably compared the poor fast bowling standards of the 30s with the "golden age" of 1890s

Fascinating commentary on how the game and its fashions change over decades

The game played by Richardson in the 1890s was very different from the one we see today, or even the one played by Don Bradman in the 1930s

In Richardson's day, there was no "second new ball". Only one ball per innings

And an over comprised of 5 balls in England and six in Aus

What kind of a bowler was Richardson?

Most contemporary accounts regarded him as a fast bowler with not a lot of subtlety. Lacking the guile of his rival Bill Lockwood

But incredibly fit, and capable of very long spells

An extract from his Wisden obituary describing his style

Richardson's greatest moment as a bowler was in the Ashes test of 1896 at Manchester, when he took 13 wickets, yet Aus won with 3 wickets to spare

THis was the game when Ranji debuted, and scored 62 and 154

One of the great test matches

Scorecard -

espncricinfo.com/series/17673/s…

He also toured Australia in 1894-95 when he bowled on thankless flat wickets against a very strong Australian batting line-up

Took 32 wickets in the five tests at an average of 26.5

Cardus in his essay is very eloquent on Richardson. One of his boyhood heroes -

Between 1894 and 1897, Richardson was at his best, taking 1005 wickets over four summers at an average of 14 or so

Some numbers from Cardus

Shockingly impressive numbers

Cardus concludes his piece on Richardson with these moving lines -

The whole piece can be read here -

espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack…

Richardson died in 1912 at a fairly young age of 41.

Honest Tom

A forgotten legend of The Oval

Post-script : To get a perspective on why we need to celebrate Tom Richardson, notice that little table I shared in an earlier tweet -

The guy bowled 1600+ overs in three successive seasons from 1895 to 1897!

That's a lot of work for 3 months of cricket each year