Cricket 1898

390 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S ept . 1, 1898. WITH STODDART’S TEAM N AUSTRALIA. From Priuce Ranjiteinhji’s book, of which a notice is given in “ Gossip,” we extract the follow ing remarks about English and Australian cricket, from which a very good opinion of the straight­ forward and entertaining way ia which the Prince has spoken throughout the whole book may be obtained:— ‘ ' Let us see what the English player has to put up with when he comes to Australia. He finds a wicket much faster than he has been used to, and he finds, also, that the wickets remain invariably the same —hard and fast. He finds the ball com ing to him at a considerably quicker pace than he has been used to, with the result that his timing is at fault, and the resources which, if he is any­ thing like an able batsman, he possesses, and uses to such signal advantage in England, do not enable him to make a variety of strokes. His customary strokes he cannot employ, or if he does, he will find that, instead of being advantageous to him, they have proved a danger on account of his faulty timing. But he is so habituated to make the strokes that, unless he is a batsman gifted with much patience, and able to school himself against temptation, he will be hardly able to resist the subtle arts of Australian bowlers. In the present combination, nearly all the batsmen have been what are described by home critics as brilliant and resourceful; but the tactics which have been successful on English wickets have, unfortunately, been detrimental to the best interests of their side, and I feel sure that slow players, and players with a less variety of strokes, will achieve a greater measure of success in this country than more brilliant players, unless the latter are gifted with the rare faculty of quickly adapting themselves to circum­ stances. “ What has been a disadvantage to the English batsmen has been still more so to the English bowlers. Very rarely does a good, true English wicket last two days. It will be generally found that on the last day the wicket has crumbled, and the bowler gets his turn on either the last or the two last in i Th»-n, again, the English cli nate is to v .riahU that rain often comes t> the howler ’4 help and makes the wicket sticky, si >w, and caked, much to his delight. Tne re-ult is that, the English bowler does not, iu the majority of instances, trouble himself to do anything more than keep an accu­ rate pitch, and to be able to bowl without tiring for a considerable j eriod during the day. He also attempts, and often succeeds, in trying to break either one way or the other, and knowing that the wicket will, at one time or another, and even at the start, if hel| ed by rain, assist him, he does not trouble to learn the subtle arts which all Australian bowlers seem to possess and think it necessary to learn, on account of having to bow l on true, hard wickets. In other words, the English bowler, except in a few instances, does not use his head. This comprises change of pace, change of delivery or action, to break either way, to avoid a batsman’s pet strokes, or to lure him to destruction through his weak ones. English bowlers, therefore, who come out to Australia, unless they are natu­ rally gifted bowlers, find that, owing to the glofsy surface of the pitches, and the pace with which the balls rebound, they are at sea. The wicket lasts considerably longer than is necessary for the comple­ tion of the match in most instances, and they find that the patience of the Austra­ lian batsman is untiring, and that thi-ir length, upon which they mainly depend, is not, in itself, sufficient to get wickets ; so that the fire of their bow ling gradually wears out, and they gradually weaken their attack. Then they bow l like machines, and are at the mercy of the batsmen. “ From these remarks it will naturally follow that the English players, both batsmen and bowlers, stand a better chance against Australian combinations on slow, sticky pitches, or those which give the bowlers assistance, provided that, the conditions remain equal for both sides. Throughout this tour there has been only one wicket that has been affected by rain to any extent in a match that has been completed. The victory gained by England over Victoria in the return was, in a great measure, due to the inability o f the Victoria players to time the b ill on a wicket that had been slightly affected by rain. The English players, on the contrary—although it must be acknowledged that the wicket improved during the latter part of their second innings—being more accustomed to play on sticky wickets, were not seriously inconvenienced by the state of the pitch. “ I must ackno wledge that I should have liked to see, for the sake of variety and for the sake of seeing games played out under all conditions, two games of the Test series played from first to last on wickets affected by rain. There is always more excitement and fun, and more skill displayed ou ruck wickets than on perfect wickets. It is a m 'st perfect sight to see such playeis as Jackson, Shrewsbury, or Patterson playing two good bowlers on a sticky wicket. The geuius and resource and the variety of strokes, the judgment iu placing, are all so enchant io g to the real cricket enthusiast. The perfect wickets, which are so common nowadays, to my mind level batsmen to a certain degree, at the same time giving them an unuue i.dvantage over bowlers. This latter p r icnl trly applies to this coun­ try. 'I'llr* pa'ient batsman with a few strokes is ; a ;ti a’ly as effective as a batsman wim a } 'rear variety of strokes, which, by the w»y, he is iu most cases unable to utili e o:i nco u it o f the excep­ tional pace of the turf, a .<1 occasionally forgetting himselr, he risks ir, an I meets with failure. “ Another disadvantage may be n o‘ ed, which, happily, has not on thii tour handicapped our players so much as it has done players of other teams ; yet, in a case or two, it made some individuals less effective. This is the exceptional heat of an Australian summer. It was, indeed, a matter of congratulation that during most of our matches in Melbourne the majority of the players bore the heat well, although one or two had to retire for a short period from the game. This must be put down as one of the strange conditions under which the game is played here. “ While I am on the subject of strange conditions, I might incidentally touch on one point that has been prominent, and that I may, without exaggerating the magnitude of its effect on the play of the team, say differs largely from the custom of English cricket grounds. That is the “ barracking ” —as it is termed—of the crowd, and the delight of a certain section of the press in running down cricketers individually. The present English team had unfortunately to put up with this during the tour, and, naturally enough, the annoyance had a certain effect on their play at times. I am fully aware that this treatment is not because they are visitors and strangers. Both of the nuisances have become almost habits in this country; so much so that Austra­ lian players experience it themselves, and in all probability come in for a larger share when there is no English team engrossing the attention of the public. In the interests of Australian cricket I sincerely hope that the good sense of the people and the representatives of the press, who have done so much to make the game what it is to-day, w ill prevail, and they will gradually but effectually abolish the mischiefs under which cricket at the present day suffers in Australia. “ Unfortunately, several journals, mis­ understanding our protests, have taken them as condemning Australian crowds and press, rather than as the rebuke of an evil which visitors and local players alike suffer from ; so they have, to a certain exteut, encouraged the evil. But I feel sure that in time they w ill recognise their mistake, and will not contend that, because such a thing exists even in England, we have no right to find fault with a similar abuse in this couutry, where it exists to a much greater extent. Such proceedings, it is true, are seen in E n gland; still, I may say I have never witnessed there such continual “ bar­ racking ” or such abuse meted out in the press. On “ barracking,” George Giffen, in his valuable book of reminiscences, has many pithy remarks aptly made as to the abuse of cricketers by the press of this country. M y captaiu’s scrap-books, both of the present tour and of the previous one, bear eloquent ttstimony on the s-ubject. I am fully aware that Aus'ralian crowds, as a whole—as our captain said at Melbourne at the farewell banquet accorded us—are very fair to b jth sides. Why not, then, prevent a few—whether they be hundreds, scores, or tens — from making themselves a nuisance to both players and the spec­ tators ? “ Still two more causes exist why the tea'll at times was unable to do itself justice. One is the accidents which all visiting teams have to suffer from. No forethought or care can prevent mishaps