Cricket 1905

A ug . 3, 1905. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE OAME. 311 S urrey . First innings. Second innings. O. M. R. W. O. M. R. \V. Cotter ... ... 25.3 3 97 3 ... Howell ... ... 22 5 49 2 ... !!! 9 0 36 0 Armstrong ... 26 6 65 1 ... ... 15.3 6 25 6 McLeod ... ... 17 2 74 3 ... ... 21 3 65 1 Noble ... 21 1 56 1 ... Ootter delivered two no-balls, and Noble and Howell each bowled two wides. TH E MELBOURNE C.C. a n d t h e V ICTOR IAN C.A. In Cricket of April 13th we give the full text of a circular issued by the Melbourne O.C. in reply to au attack made upon the club as to its want of loyalty to the Victorian Cricket Associa­ tion. We have been requested by Mr. E. E. Bean, the acting secretary of the Victorian C.A., to publish a circular which has been sent out by the Associa­ tion in reply to that of the Melbourne C.C. But owing to the extreme pressure on our space at this period of the year, we are only able to give the following extracts:— G entlem en , —A circular was issued by the Melbourne Cricket Club on the 4th of February last, addressed to the Presidents and Secretaries of the different clubs com­ prising the Victorian Cricket Association, setting forth reasons why the establishment of an Australian Board of Control for Inter­ national Cricket, as recommended by the recent Conference of representatives of the associations of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, was unnecessary. In view of recent developments, the Victorian Cricket Association deems it its duty to reply to the circular and place before you and the cricketing public generally a statement of the question at issue. On page 2 of the M.C.C. Circular is a tabulated statement showing the receipts by the V.C.A. from matches played on the M.C.C. ground since 1881—a total of £29,451 Is. 9d. The impression has got abroad that this sum has been donated to the V.C.A. by the Melbourne Cricket Club. The amount mentioned is really the gross takings of the Association’s matches. On page 3 of the circular the total sums are again detailed, and the further statement is made that the V.C.A. received this total “ without any deduction for the use of the ground.” It is true that the M.C.C., to its own great profit, as will be hereafter shown, gave its ground to the V.C.A. for the purpose of Inter-State matches, but the circular omits to state that the V.C.A. paid the whole of the expenses in connection with all of these games, donated the whole of the receipts against Western Australia and New Zealand to the visitors, and of rec«nt years has given one-third of the gross takings against South Australia to the South Australian Association. As showing the effect which the visits of the English teams have on the attendances at the Inter-State matches, it may be remarked that since 1894-5, the season in which the M.C.C. and the Trustees of the Sydney Cricket Ground conjointly brought out their first team, the V.C.A. has not declared a single dividend, but it has made the following calls :—1894-5, £12 per delegate ; 1899-1900, £20 per delegate ; 1901-2, £10 per delegate. Prior to 1894-5 dividends were regularly declared by the V.C.A., the amounts dis­ tributed amongst the Associated Clubs during the four preceding years being £797 10s., £1,080, £312, and £600. In the following table the first column shows the takings from the Inter-State matches of recent years when an English team is present; and the second column the receipts during the previous season :— Season. R eceipts . Deficiency. English Team Visiting. Previous Season. (No English Team.) £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 1891-2 1070 15 0 1760 10 o 689 15 0 1894-5 1015 19 0 2286 2 0 1270 3 0 1897-8 807 0 6 1800 4 0 993 3 6 1901-2 1077 4 0 981 18 0 95 6 0* 1903-4 984 5 6 1404 7 0 420 1 6 * An increase. In 1900-1 the wickets were not good, and the scores were very low. Summarised, the visits of the last five teams have resulted in a loss to the V.C.A. of £3,277 17s. Whenever an English team visits Australia, the V.C.A. must therefore be prepared to face a decrease of over £600 in the receipts from the Inter-State matches. With regard to the suggestion in 1901 to give the control of cricket in Victoria to the M.C.C., the Circular omits to state that the proposal to consider the question was only carried at the V.C.A. meeting by one vote, and that the three representatives of the M.C.C. voted in favour of the proposal. At a recent meeting of the V.C.A. it was stated that the position to which the M.C.C. had attained was solely due to the action of the V.C.A. in playing all its matches on that club’s ground, but one of the M.C.C. repre­ sentatives dissented from this statement, and asserted that there were not twenty members on the club's roll in consequence of the cricket matches played there. Notwithstand­ ing this denial, it can be safely asserted that if the big cricket matches were removed from that club’s ground more than a thousand members would at once transfer their mem­ bership from the M.C.C. to the club on whose ground the matches were to be played, and that the “ Bar Tender” would be re­ duced by at least 50 per cent. That the M.C.C. has ever zealously guarded its claim to have all of the Association’s matches played on its ground will be gathered from the fact that in 1888 it protested against the action of the V.C.A. in playing the match against Tasmania on the East Mel­ bourne ground, although the M.C.C. ground was engaged for other purposes on the date required. Instead, therefore, of the V.C.A. being under so many obligations to the M.C.C., as is the underlying tenor of the M.C.C.’s Circular, that Club is under a deep debt of gratitude to the V.C.A. for having for so many years assisted in building up that club to the detriment of other clubs, who would have been enterprising enough to make their grounds fit for Interstate and other matches if the V.C.A. would hive given them an agreement for a term of years. The Circular stigmatises the Board of Con­ trol as “ irresponsible,” and it is freely stated by the opponents of the V.C.A. that without the aid of the M.C.C. the remaining clubs would not be able to finance any English teams to Australia. We would compare the financial position of the M.C.C. in 1880, two years after it brought out its first team, with the present financial position of the Associated Clubs. In the year named the total receipts of the M.C.C., excluding an overdraft of £1,050 17s. lid., were £1,912 4s. 5d. Last season the aggregate receipts of the Asso­ ciated Clubs, omitting Melbourne, were £8,676 8s. lOd. If, therefore, the Melbourne Club, with an income of £1,912 4s. 5d., could take the whole of the financial risk of bringing out an English team, surely the Asso­ ciated Clubs, with more than four times that revenue, can, in the present condition of Australian cricket, share two-fifths of the risk of financing such teams. The improve­ ments now in course and proposed at Fitzroy, South Melbourne and Carlton, and the splen­ did financial recovery of East Melbourne, are still further evidences of the prosperity and enterprise of some of the clubs constituting the V.C.A. The members of the V.C.A. hold it as in­ controvertible that the control of international cricket in Australia should be in the hands, not of a single club, however great and wealthy, but in those of the various Associa­ tions already governing Interstate cricket. ©omsponBencc. The Editor does not hold himself responsible tor the opinions of his correspondents. AN IMPORTANT SUGGESTION. To the Editor of C r ic k e t . D e a r S ir ,—Writers of cricket, in respect to English teams visiting Aus­ tralia, have been advocating the non- iuclusion of so may country matches in future programmes, with the object of playing matches with New Zealand and Tasmania. Whether designedly or not, both by Mr. Warner and Mr. Bosanquet, Western Australia has not been men­ tioned, and it would interest us very much in this great Western State to disc jver the reason for this. The team calls here both coming and going, and it would be a very easy matter to plav for two weeks, either at the commencement or at the end of the season. It cannot be said that we have not grounds good enough to play on, for both at Fremantle and Perth we have grounds equal to the grounds of the Eastern State. What first-class cricketers we have is an un­ known quantity, for the reason that on account of our distance from the other States we do not often have a chance to meet any of the best men from there. That we have some first-class men, we believe, and it is to be able to judge, and to improve cricket here, that we are so anxious for an English team to visit us, especially when it can be done with so little trouble and expense. We did think that the M.C.C. team, captained by Mr. Warner, would have played here. In fact the M.C.C., through Major Wardill, led us to believe it would. However it did not, and though we were annoyed at the time, our annoyance will be appeased if the next team decides, as it should decide, to play here, either on the way out or on the way home. The Western State is becoming the great State of the Commonwealth, and we have no desire to lag behind with our cricket. Yours faithfully, J o h n R u s h t o n , Hon. Sec. of the West Australian Cricket Association. Barrack Street, Perth, June 22nd, 1905.