Cricket 1900

A p r il 12, 1900. CRICKET ; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 59 in Australia, India, South Africa, and America—in fact, wherever the game is played.” “ T h is will take time,” continued Mr. Lacey, “ so there is no likelihood of any­ thing being done before the season of 1901. Last year there were a great many drawn games. A large number of people who have the interest of cricket at heart feel very strongly that matches ought to be finished in three days, and many of them think an alteration in the l.b.w. rule would be a way out of the difficulty. But nearly everybody has his own remedy for the evil. I cannot, of course, say what conclusion the committee will come to, and the matter is in their hands. Still, I may say for myself that, speaking broadly, the principle prevailing should be what it was evidently intended to be when the laws of the game were first THE E A R L Y BIRD. “ Rara avis in terris, Ranjique simillima Singhi.” [Prince Ranjitsinhji was practising at Cambridge very early in the season.1 C l e m e n t H i l l , who, although he has played very fine cricket during the past Australian season, has hardly realised the great expectations which had been formed of him, made 210 for East Adelaide against North Adelaide on February 17, his innings including twenty-three 4’s. T h e idea of a tour in England by Indian cricketers has not entirely died out. According to the Indian Sporting Times, a good many cricketers in India are talking of the chances of getting up a team of fifteen to twenty cricketers in India to tour in England, the team to consist of Europeans as well as natives, regardless of creed or caste. What has started the discussion is the fact that the West Indies are sending a team of no less than eighteen members over to England this summer, and it is still thought in India that South Africa will do likewise, though the war would prevent their eleven from being thoroughly representa­ tive of South African cricket. I t is easy to argue, continues the Indian Sporting Times, that what the West Indies can do, so can the Eist, but the thing must be gone into a little more below the surface be­ fore its real difficulties appear. We all know that the talk of taking over a native team to England this summer has ended in nothing, but that would appear to be more from want of funds to ensure against failure than from aught else. With the knowledge and ex­ perience of the result of the last Parsee team’s tour at home, it was certain to the Parsee originators of this native team tour that before starting there must be enough and to spare of hard cash to tide over all financial difficulties. And this fact must be borne well in mind before anybody attempts another trip to England from India with a cricket team. A r e p r e s e n t a t i v e of the Evening News called upon Mr. F. E. Lacey, secre­ tary of the M.C.C., to obtain his views of the latest suggested changes in the lawB of the game. “ I cannot express any personal opinion on the matter,” began Mr. Lacey, “ but I can tell you what is being done. I have received a great amount of correspondence on the subject. Letters have come to me from all parts of the world, and they are receiving the M.C.C. committee’s careful consideration. Before any change is made, however, the committee w ill try to get the opinions of prominent players and authorities, not only in England, but arranged—namely, that the ball should be kept out of the wicket with the bat and not with the leg.” T h e annual general meeting of the Essex County Club will be held at Leyton, on Thursday, April 26th, when a pre­ sentation will be made to Mr. P. Perrin in recognition of his fine batting per­ formances in the season of 1899. In consequence of the war there will be no dinner this year. The most important items in the report which will be pre­ sented by the committee, will be found on page 60. “ I AM sure,” says “ Short Slip ” in the Sydney Mail “ that the cabled informa­ tion that the Marylebone Club had abandoned the proposed Australian tour was read with regret..................... Now that the M.C.C. has resigned its control it may be said that the team which does come will not have been stamped with the imprimatur of the Marylebone Club. It is generally thought that we will have a team out here probably captained by Lord Hawke, and it may be that the men will be quite as strong as that which would have been selected by M.C.C., but we wanted to defeat, if possible, an eleven that was admitted by the authorities in England to be the flower of English cricket. That, however, is not now possible, and all we can hope for is that when the team is finally chosen it will be admitted by the Press to be the strongest that England can produce.” T h o u g h the Calcutta Club itself had not a very successful season, according to the Asian, there were two features of exceptional interest in the cricket. These were in the number of visiting teams which found themselves able to respond to the invitation of the Calcutta Cricket Club, and in the grati­ fying and marked im­ provement in form displayed by some of the local elevens, not­ ably the Calcutta Rangers, Ballygunge, and to a certain extent Barrackpore. The event of the season, of course, was the visit of the Madras P re sid e n cy cricketers, who beat both the Calcutta Club and the Behar Wan­ derers handsomely, in the latter instance after having all the worst of the opening stages of the game. The Cal­ cutta Club also went down badly before the B ehar W anderers, mainly owing to a magnificent not out innings of 209 by E. B. T . Studd, of H fame; and though they won with an innings to spare against both the Cachar and Sylhet teams and the Buffs from Kamptee, and had game and game about with the cricketers of that sporting flagship, H.M.S. Eclipse, their record comes out with the very poor total of ten victories, ten defeats, and two drawn games. The causes of the breakdown, the Asian adds, were weak batting, un­ certain out-cricket, and, in more than one instance, bad captaincy, combined with perhaps a certain amount of ill-luck. G o o d news of Harry Trott! According to the Melbourne Sportsman, Major War- dill, with W. Bean and A. E. Johns, recently paid the old Australian captain a visit, and to their great delight found him ever so much improved in health. Johns had not seen him for two years, and when Trott came into the room Johns had his back to him, and the next minute he was greeted with, ‘ ‘ Hallo, A lf! How are you ?” In many other ways the prince of Austra­ lian captains showed that he is making steady progress towards convalescence.