Cricket Career
| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batting style | Right-handed | |||
| Bowling style | Right-arm slow | |||
| Role | All-rounder | |||
| Domestic team information | ||||
| Years | Team | |||
| 1854 | Gentlemen of Kent | |||
| 1855 | Gentlemen of Kent and Surrey | |||
| 1855–56 | Marylebone Cricket Club | |||
| 1855–56 | Kent | |||
| 1856 | Kent and Sussex | |||
| 1856 | Gentlemen of Kent and Sussex | |||
| 1856 | Cambridge University | |||
| 1856–76 | Victoria | |||
| 1864 | G. Anderson's XI | |||
| Umpiring information | ||||
| FC umpired | 1 | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| First-class | ||||
| 32 | ||||
| 602 | ||||
| 12.28 | ||||
| 0/1 | ||||
| 58 | ||||
| 3731 | ||||
| 130 | ||||
| 10.09 | ||||
| 15 | ||||
| 3 | ||||
| 7/44 | ||||
| 20/- | ||||
| Source: CricketArchive, 24 April 2012 | ||||
On his return to Melbourne near the end of December 1856 at the age of twenty-one he became one of Victoria's best cricketers, representing the colony in intercolonial cricket matches against New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania.
Wills regularly commuted between his father's property in Geelong and Melbourne between 1856 to 1859.
Wills was elected secretary of the MCC in 1857-58. However the following year he had a falling out with the club and left for a rival club, Richmond. The result was a lasting tension between both parties. The ill feeling was heightened by an incident during a match while Wills was playing for Richmond, in which he became involved in fist fights with some of its members.
Wills captained Victoria in 1862.
Wills was the grandson of a man sent to Sydney from England for highway robbery, and this convict heritage had a strong bearing on his life. Wills was a strong advocate for the rights of free settlers and "emancipated convicts" (those who had proven their worth to society). The Melbourne Cricket Club, like many institutions of high society, was known to discriminate against the "Convict Stain". An achievement of his advocacy, was his own admission as a high-ranking member of the MCC, despite his convict heritage.
Wills was twice called for throwing by different umpires during cricket matches in 1872.
Read more about this topic: Tom Wills
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