Cricket 1895

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. No. 3 8 3 . VOL. X IV . Registered for Transmission Abroad. THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1895. PR ICE 2d. CRICKET IN THE WEST INDIES A CHAT WITH DR. R. B. ANDERSON. Wherever two or three Englishmen are gathered together, there you find cricket. If an Englishmen suddenly finds himself in a strange country, one of the first things he enquires about is the leading cricket club. If, as it happens, there be none, he sets about start­ ing one, until, at the present time, you have the great English game played in every quarter of the globe where the face of a white man is visible. Even now, were the white man to disappear from the earth, the game would never die. The Parsee, the South African, theWest Indian, and many another race would perpetuate the glorious game for all time. It was some twenty-three years ago that a young Englishman set his foot on Tobago, one of the West Indian Islands. He went out to seek fame, fortune—and cricket. Without the latter the two former were vain. Cricket at once took root and flourished in the island, as it had been doing for the past two centuries in Trinidad, Barbados, Demerara, and Jamaica. Three years since, after eighteen years absence, Dr. Anderson—for such was the name of the young Englishman who had been one of the pioneers of cricket in Tobago— returned to England full as ever of enthusiasm for the game, and determined to organise a team of Englishmen to pay a visit to the West Indies. How well he suc­ ceeded may be seen in the highly- successful tour of Mr. Lucas’s team now drawing to a close. With the view of learning something of West Indian cricket from one who had been intimately associated with it so many years, I called upon Dr. Anderson, and found that gentleman full of his subject. “ Yes,” he said, in answer to my questions, “ I consider that the visit of the cricketers under the captaincy of Mr. Lucas is one of national im­ portance, not merely as regards the West Indies but also in relation to this country. It will certainly mark an epoch in the history of the game out there, and it will not be without its educational effect on both countries from a social and, probably, an economic point of view. The fact is that the ignorance of stay-at- DE. E. B. ANDEBSON. home Englishmen about the West Indies is something appalling. Instead of regarding it as a great health resort, which it undoubtedly is in the winter, people in this country seem to regard it as a special manufactory for ague and malarial fevers. I only wish I had some of the letters Lucas has sent over. Why, he and his men are delighted with the climate, charmed with the people, and enthusiastic about the sport.” Dr. Anderson’s survey of the West Indies was too wide to include in a cricket paper, but I was spellbound by his elo­ quence on all that pertained to the country of his adoption. “ Tell me something,” I said, “ about cricket on the islands—its class, by whom it is played, and how it is likely to develop.” “ Ah, that would be a long story,” said the doctor, but if I tell you a little about Tobago you may take it as indicative of most of the more important islands. First, I must tell you that the natives take to the game as ducks do to water------” “ Then the colored men play, too ? ” I interrupted. “ I should just think they do. Colored men and black men too, for there is a difference, you know.” “ And all classes ? Labouring men and merchants ? ” “ Why, certainiy. Just as in England it is the national game. Everybody plays it, and many of the best players are colored men.” “ Had you any difficulty in teaching the men of Tobago at first P” “ Yery little. They are so in­ telligent—even the poorer classes —and so enthusiastic that they soon overcame the initiative diffi­ culties, and after a short time the joy of the game grew upon them that the difficulty was to get them to leave off. Two points required a good deal of teaching. One was to get work on the ball, and the other to judge distance in running for a catch. So far as ‘ pitch ’ was concerned, I adopted Routledge’s plan in putting down a piece of white paper and asking them to aim at it in bowling. As regards catching, I found, that if a ball went up in the long field the fieldsman, instead of starting to run in the direction of the ball, would stand