fredfertang
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
We hear a lot about Broad and Anderson, and others, needing to be nursed/rested - 50 overs in five days and how they need a break. Could either or them (or anybody else) do what Tom Richardson did in 1896? He bowled 110 five-ball overs in the three-day Test at Old Trafford; the next two days he was back with Surrey, bowling 43 overs and getting ten wickets. Immediately after his day off he was losing to Kent with 12 wickets in 58 overs, again in two days. Two days off and then 59 overs against the Australians. And that was just part of his season.
At the time Richardson was 26, and Broad Anderson are 28/32, so certainly for Jimmy that's a significant difference, and Richardson at 32 was struggling for form and fitness, and he died at 41. So he's probably not the best comparison, but is a stark example of the old timer's workloads - plenty bowled 1,000 or more overs a season - are today's players mollycoddled?
At the time Richardson was 26, and Broad Anderson are 28/32, so certainly for Jimmy that's a significant difference, and Richardson at 32 was struggling for form and fitness, and he died at 41. So he's probably not the best comparison, but is a stark example of the old timer's workloads - plenty bowled 1,000 or more overs a season - are today's players mollycoddled?