A number of first-class cricketers were killed or wounded during the war, the deaths including eight Test players: Colin Blythe, Major Booth and Kenneth Hutchings of England; Tibby Cotter of Australia; Reginald Hands, Bill Lundie, Reggie Schwarz and Gordon White of South Africa.
[2] In his 1939 autobiography, Fry wrote: "I have a notion that the cricket of the nineties and early nineteen hundreds was more amusing to watch, but I am not at all sure that the game of today is not more difficult to play".
More importantly the players of that time set standards for sportsmanship that lifted cricket above other games and established it as a character-builder and an integral part of the social scene".
[citation needed] England's captains against Australia were W. G. Grace, Andrew Stoddart, Archie MacLaren, Plum Warner, Stanley Jackson, A. O. Jones, Frederick Fane, Johnny Douglas, and C. B.
[citation needed] Australia's captains against England were Billy Murdoch, Jack Blackham, George Giffen, Harry Trott, Joe Darling, Hugh Trumble, Monty Noble, Clem Hill and Syd Gregory.
However, in 1905–06, they won a series against England by four matches to one, thanks partly to the emergence of four googly bowlers: Reggie Schwarz, Bert Vogler, Aubrey Faulkner, and Gordon White.