Wisden overview
In one of the great believe-it-or-not stories of modern New Zealand cricket, Mark Richardson developed from a fledgling teenage left-arm spin bowler to a left-hand opening batsman of marvellous consistency. While manytalented youngsters were put into and pushed out of the New Zealand development system, Richardson worked his own passage and joined Otago when he was not wanted in Auckland. Having developed the bowling `yips' so much that he could not let the ball go, Richardson decided to become a batsman. In 1999-2000 Richardson achieved the rare feat of scoring over 1000 runs in a home season. Installed in the New Zealand team when Matt Horne was not available, Richardson scored 1035 first-class runs in 2000-01. This included a treble-century for New Zealand against Zimbabwe A, a double-century for New Zealand A in England and then a single century, his first in Tests, against Pakistan. Richardson even returned to the bowling crease, and his one wicket against Pakistan in Christchurch was greeted with one of the few moments of joyous theatre in an otherwise tedious Test. Don Cameron

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