Cricket 1897

A pr il 35, 1897. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 71 represent nothing more than an arbitrary standard by which bets may be decided, and in no sense the relative strength of the competing counties. If it is really desirable that this should be annually stated in terms of arithmetic, there are several methods by which the desired end may be attained. Theoretically the best is that which gives the average number of runs per match by which each county is better or worse than all its opponents, but as the process of determining this is a complicated one it is perhaps hardly suitable. Almost identical results are arrived at by striking a balance between the average runs per wicket of the whole season’s work, and the average runs per wicket made against the bowling. There are those who say that the ratio of one to the other gives a more correct result, but theoretically I am unable to see that this is so. Anyway, the difference between the results shown by the two processes is too slight to quarrel about. But I cannot see that there is any necessity for a County Championship at all. Apart from the points already alluded to, it is doing, and has done, irreparable injury to the game in other ways. It has compelled the cessation of all the interesting games in which, under various titles, all the great players of the day used to meet in friendly rivalry, arJ it has completely ruined the Gentlemen and Players matches, without doubt the most interesting of all after that in which the A.E.E. and the U.A.E.E. met. I cannot waste time in arguing with those who would prefer to see a mere county match to one between two picked elevens, such as North against South, or Players of South against Gentlemen of South. If the counties represented anything territorial, or anything with local tradi­ tions, one could possibly understand the sentiment at bottom; but in these days, when people are continually changing their places of residence, and when counties are mere clubs for which anyone considered good enough can play if he chooses, the sentiment can be nothing more than a fighting or a betting one. When Lancashire plays an eleven which does not contain a single Lancashire man no other solution seems conceivable for the desire of Lancashire men that Lanca­ shire should be the champion county. If it be said that there would be less first-class cricket throughout the country, the reply is, not at all. Suppose the first eleven of England were to play the next eleven at Lord’s, then the third eleven could play the fourth at Sheffield, the fifth play the sixth at Manchester, and the seventh the eighth at Brighton, the localities being altered every year. I venture to say that the last match would be infinitely more attractive than one between two counties which depended on four or five men, the other places being filled up by constantly changed medioc­ rities. There ought to be every year four such matches, and besides, three Gentle­ men and Players matches, three North and South, and one each Players of South against Players of North, Players of South against Gentlemen of South, Gentlemen of South against Gentlemen of North, Gentlemen of North against Players of North, which should all b “ played in different centres, and the best men chosen in all. The difficulty of course would be in finding a competent authority to choose the players, but in default of a better, in spite of the eccentricities it has often displayed in the choice of elevens, the M.C.C. should act. I feel sure that a committee of cricket editors on the Press would choose better elevens, be­ cause they are more used to dealing day by day with the doings of all the cricketers throughout the country, and as a rule are not given to favoritism; but there are too many obj ectionsto giving thePress this power to render such a course advisable. A programme such as I suggest would leave ample time for as many county matches as are now played. The matches I have suggested are but fourteen in number, four of which would be played upon the same day, so that a little inge­ nuity could easily fit them into the pro­ gramme. As it is at present arranged, half the counties are often idle, even when no extraneous match is on hand. I am not among those who think cricketers overworked in these times. Forty years ago, when travelling facilities were not nearly so great, when living was harder, and when all runs were run out, many of the leading cricketers used to play from forty to forty-five three-day matches; but they were much jollier over it than the superior persons of to-day, very few of whom ever play as many as thirty-five. If these matches were played, and no County Championship officially recog­ nised, the pressmen, who I believe invented it, could still amuse themselves with their statistics and tables, and per­ haps a little variety might be thrown in by two prominent scribes deciding it by different methods giving different results. To those who object that there are cham­ pionships, and tournaments in all branches of sport, the reply is that cricket differs from all in the amount of luck which enters into every game, aud every series of games. Of course no sport, or at all events few, is without its share of luck, but none feels the tenth part that cricket does. In a championship contest a single spin of a coin, a shower of rain, a catch missed, a slip in batting, and many other uncontrollable trifles might upset the whole work of a season, and lose it. No sport is so dependent on the freaks of the weather as cricket, and English weather is nothing but freaks ; of course weather could never make an unskilful player a good one, but it can so affect a skilful player as to make it difficult to distinguish him from a bad one. In contests which take three days it is a matter of the purest luck which side is prej udiced by the weather, but in those which only last minutes or hours, and even those which are of longer duration, but in which both parties are doing the same thing at the same time, both are affected alike. I am sorry to see that all recent attempts at reforming the game have proceeded upon what appear to be en­ tirely wrong lines. The latest proposal, in which all the counties seemingly agree, is to abolish the follow-on. What advan­ tage they expect to derive from this course I cannot understand. It would un­ doubtedly place the weaker sides still further at the mercy of the stronger ones, although the former apparently think otherwise. And not only so, it would put an end to some of the most interesting phases of the game. An uphill contest in which by a good follow on an eleven retrieves itself from the disaster of a bad first innings, is surely one of the most absorbing of all the aspects of the game. The plucky up-hill efforts of Sussex, after following on against Somerset, Oxford University, Gloucester, and Yorkshire were in my opinion the finest things of the season, notwithstanding that they all resulted in draws. Surely no reform so far-reaching was ever proposed on such trivial grounds as the irresponsible eccen­ tricity of a University bowler. If the good sense and feeling of cricketers cannot put an end to such exhibitions as these without the game being radi­ cally altered by hard and fast laws, then it is about time that old-fashioned cricket lovers should look outfor someother hobby. Apart from the County Championship, the only reform really required is the alteration of the l.b.w. law so as to bring it within the region of common sense. N ote :—The question of throwing in bowling has cropped up again. There are only two possible ways of dealing with it —either enforce the law, or alter it so as to legalise throwing. Personally, I am not disposed to put any obstacle in the way of any sportsmanlike method of keeping the runs down, and am therefore inclined to favour the alteration of the law. But it is said that throwing at high speed is much more dangerous than delivering the ball with a straight arm. I confess I do not see why, for in the latter case the ball is delivered from a higher point, and should, therefore, ba more likely to bump up to the batsman’s head; but if the fact is so, then throwing ought not to be allowed, for it is not desirable that the cricket field should be a field of slaughter. Any way, so long as the law is not repealed, it should be most rigidly enforced. Still, I do not think its repeal such a complete revolu­ tion as that which abolished round arm bowling. For my part, I think as a change a little round arm, round the wicket, not over it, would puzzle many a well set batsman, and lead to catches. There is a m eth o d o f red u cin g scores w h ich has n ever b een su gg ested , b u t w h ich , I b eliev e, w o u ld n o t o n ly ha ve th a t effect, b u t also th e desirable on e o f ca u sin g batsm en to p la y m ore freely. It is to a b olish sin gles, an d co u n t o n ly hits fo r tw o , th ree, fo u r, e tc., a batsm au b eiu g ru n o u t if his w ick et is p u t d o w n b e fore tw o ru n s are com p leted . I th in k this su g g estion w o rth y o f con sid era tion . As fo r th e oth er re ce n tly raised q u estion o f th e p a y o f p rofession als, I C in n ot see h o w th ere ca n b e a m om en t’ s d o u b t as to th eir a bsolu te rig h t to a la rger share o f th e im m en sely in creased profits o f m od ern crick et. No d o u b t it w ou ld com p lica te th e am ateu r an d p rofession a l pu zzle, bu t th a t is a m atter w h ich n eed n o t ba h a n d led u n til it arises.