Cricket 1903

CRICKET, AUG. 13, 1903. “ T oge th e r joined in C r ick e t’ s m an ly t o i l .” — Byron. jto. 041 . v o l . x x i i . THURSDAY, AUG. 13, 1903. THE MOST ABUSED MAN OF THE DAY. It ia hardly necessary to say that the subject of this eketch is Mr. P. F. Warner, whose appointment as captain of the M.C.C. team has brought him so promi­ nently into notice of late. He has taken the place of Mr. Chamberlain as the man at whom it is thought con­ venient and even praise­ worthy to throw as many stones as possible. He has been condemned as an inter­ loper and a nonentity; he has been told to resign with as much grace as possible, and that soon; he has been laughed at, and held up to public scorn, and sinister meanings have been attached to all his utterances. He has fallen a ready prey into the hands of the caricaturists, who have found excellent subjects for their pen in his small stature and youthful appearance. And yet it is not very easy to see why he should be subjected to such a chorus of abuse, for after all he did not make himself captain of the team. True his detractors say that he has had no experience, and that a far better man has been assed over in order to give im a chance of distinguish­ ing himself; that no one would have dreamed for a moment of suggesting him as captain of an England team, if the matches were to be played at home ; that he would not even have been considered by anybody as worthy to represent his country under the same circumstances; and that in the New Zealand tour he showed that the discretion which is so essential in a captain of a touring team is by no means his strongest point. But again it is necessary to remark that he did not choose himself, and that when he was appointed as captain he was not called upon to express the opinion that he was unworthy to receive such an honour. It might not unnaturally be thought that Mr. Warner would have felt aggrieved and hurt by such scathing criticisms as he has received. On the contrary he seems to revel in them. He writes reams of copy about cricket in general and his team in particular. He speaks with enthusiasm of the men who will be so soon under his command, and, when several men hesitated, he boldly took the line that their loss would not be felt because there were ever so many other men at least as good. He gleefully states in an evening paper that he is the most talked of man since the late McDougall of Moat Farm notoriety. He looks for­ ward to the tour through rose-coloured spectacles, and seems quite surprised to find that anybody can hint that the team is not by any means representative of the best cricket of the country. He is a pronounced optimist. Such a man as this has at least one important qualification for the office of captain of an English team—he is not at all likely to be influenced during the tour by adverse criticism, or to alter his methods because the news­ papers consider them wrong. He may be trusted to do his level best for the team and the country, undeterred by the remarks of scoffers and would-be advisers. He has, of course, many other qualifications in addition. He has shown clearly enough when he has been captain of Middlesex that he knows how to lead a team to victory, and how to minimise defeat. He is able to get the most out of his men, with whom he always manages to keep on good terms, and he may most certainly be described as a “ luoky ” cap­ tain, which, after all, is of quite as much importance as anything else. For just as a skilful General is of very little use to his country if he invariably is beaten be­ cause of circumstances over which he has no control, so the captain of an England Eleven can do very little if he always has the worst of the weather and the wicket, and always loses the toss when it is most necessary to win it. It may be true enough that “ it is not in mortals to command suc­ cess,” but it goes precious hard with a cricket team when it begins to feel sure that its captain will never do so. Let us hope that Mr. Warner’s good fortune will not desert him when he gets to Australia, and that in the matter of weather and winning the toss he may be on an equality with the Australian captain. As a cricketer, Mr. Warner is quite in the front rank, and has been there for years, although so far his form has never