Chris Rogers became the second oldest Australian Test cricketer to score a debut century when he made his hard fought hundred on the second day of the fourth Test.
So who is the oldest?
At the age of 37 years and 351 days, Arthur Richardson made exactly 100 in 1926 at Leeds. When this remarkable record was mentioned in the lead up to the third day, Allan Border’s joking reaction was “Yeh, I don’t know much about Arthur.”
There is a lot to know about Arthur, in fact, A.B.
He was also a bespectacled opener who scored his only Test ton in an Ashes series in England.
Like Rogers, he made two half centuries before this, having made his Test debut as a 35 year old in 1924 against England in Australia.
He began with 98 and played the four Tests of that series before being chosen for the England tour two years later.
In the third Test he scored his maiden century.
While he was selected for all five Tests in 1926, his Test career came to an end having scored 403 runs at an average of 31.
He must have felt quite at home in England as Rogers has done, because he went back to play Lancashire League cricket breaking the batting record in 1929 and taking 10 wickets in an innings in 1932 with his off breaks.
Richardson had made his first class debut in 1918 for South Australia with his unrelated namesake, Victor Richardson.
The two Richardsons had to wait six years to play his their first Test – again debuting together.
They shared several big partnerships in Shield cricket. In the meantime, Arthur had become the first batsman to hit a century before lunch in Australia on his way to 280 against the MCC. His first class career spanned 15 years and 86 matches during which he scored 5238 runs at an average of 41.57.
His coaching career was extensive. He was South Australian coach from 1923-27, moved to Western Australia as a player coach in the late 1920s and ended up with the South Australian women’s team in the mid 1950s. In 1935 while coaching in the West Indies, he umpired two Tests when the home side played England.
While this involvement in cricket had helped him through the great depression, he lost his savings when W.H.Hodgett’s sharebroker firm went under in 1945.
A testimonial match for him in 1949 was Sir Donald Bradman’s last first class match. When he died in 1973 at age 85 he left behind three children, his wife of 59 years, Elsie and a life in cricket which should be remembered.
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