Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

41 Wisden recognised England’s outstanding performance and the importance of Richardson’s contribution – once he had adapted to the very different conditions. It is perfectly safe to say that since the visit of George Parr’s eleven in 1863-64 no tour of English cricketers in Australia has been from every point of view more brilliantly successful than that of Mr Stoddart’s team. In the series of contests with All Australia they had won the rubber by three matches to two. Never, probably, have five matches excited more widespread interest. They drew such crowds of people to the Australian grounds that the Melbourne Club and the trustees of the Sydney ground, under whose joint auspices the tour was undertaken, divided between them a profit of about seven thousand pounds. In England the interest was greater than had ever been felt in matches played away from our own shores, the enterprise of the Pall Mall Gazette , in arranging every afternoon when the big matches were in progress for long cable messages, keeping lovers of the game in this country in closer touch with cricket in Australia than they had ever been before. It was Richardson’s wonderful bowling that first made victory probable in the last test match. So difficult did the Surrey fast bowler find it to accommodate himself to the beautifully true fast grounds that the first three wickets he took in the Colonies cost him about a hundred runs each. 82 82 Wisden 1896 p 367 Australia 1894/95