Cricket 1910

36 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. M a r c h 3 1 , 1 9 1 0 . Take this specimen for instance—the per­ centages are those that the M.C.C. would award :— A ’s Record. B ’s Record. Per- Per- Opponents. W. L. D. centage. W. L. D. centage. Same ... 70 1 100-00 ... 7 0 1 100-00 Different... 43 1 14-28 ... 9 5 2 28*57 All ... 11 3 2 67 14 16 5 3 52-38 Or, after leading up to a given point, end then doing better in its remaining matches, a club may be credited with inferior figures. Thus, A plays 20 matches; B plays 80: — A ’s Record. B ’s Record. Per- Per- Matches. W. L. D. centage. W. L. D. centage. First ten... 6 1 3 71*42 ... 7 1 2 75 00 Remaining 54 1 11-11 ... 11 8 1 15*78 Total ... 115 4 37*50 ... 18 9 3 33-33 Instances like these have frequently cropped up but remain unnoticed because they have not happened to affect the premier position in the table. Last year, to quote one, Sussex finished ten matches aud wound up with a percentage of 40-00. When Surrey had finished ten matches their percentage stood at 60*00, but they ultimately fell below Sussex because—forsooth !—they went on finishing matches and did nearly twice as well as their opponents meanwhile. The Championship has ere now gone to a club finishing even fewer matches than Sussex did in 1909, whilst others have missed it because they have played the game, and, after actually surpassing the Championship record, have risked and incurred a mis­ adventure. Nothing can be said for such a Champion­ ship, except that so it is ; and it is so simply because the majority of its constituents fancy they are gainers by the mock-dignity it confers on them, and are too timorous to trust the public to support them for their own worth. It is the tag of “ Championship Games ” not “ Real Sporting Cricket,” they imagine, that induces even the limited patronage that some of them enjoy, and, whatever the quality of the article they deal iu, they will not hear of this talismanic label being removed from it. Then “ Wisden ” tells us that greater elas­ ticity, not rigidity, is required in County Cricket. But, surely, the Divisional scheme, which reduces the number of competition matches, is a move in this direction. He concedes the necessity of a fixed “ minimum number of out and home matches, so as to guard against a county being reckoned Champion without having played enough cricket to earn the distinction.” Now the existing system requires that every county shall play the still inadequate number of at least sixteen matches, which is the very maximum that a Division of nine counties would entail, and even then there need be no compulsion to play all of the number. A dozen would be quite enough to be made obligatory, though the advantage under a system of couniing by points would pro­ bably be sufficient inducement for every county to voluntarily arrange to play the full sixteen matches. So that, both in the number of matches required and the freedom to select opponents, especially outside of one’s Division, the proposed scheme would make for elasticity. “ Wisden ” next observes that rather than suppoit any fresh rules (which would be less numerous and exacting than those they superseded) he would “ let the Committee <f the M.C.C. decide on the general resu'.t of the season’s play which was the Champion County.” By an extraordinary coincidence the previous two pages of his “ Notes ” are devoted to a strong indictment of the Test match Selection Committee, one of whose representatives he avers had acted in a manner that “ touched the confines of lunacy.” It is hardly an encouraging introduction to removing the decision from an automatic system and entrusting it to the autocratic wisdom and impartiality of a committee. And one suspects that such a body would m t always thank him for con­ ferring such a honour on them, even if they relished the subsequent comments of himself —and others—on their manner of fulfilling it. Poor committee! I think there would have been some crape bands after their 1903 decision. Finally “ Wisden” opines that the sovereign remedy for all the ills of cricket, is to encourage the amateurs and offer them every inducement to play—which is one of the very objects that the Divisional move­ ment is aiming at. The present system has been tried long enough to prove its failure to attract the amateur. Under the reformed conditions the reduced number and increased importance of competition games would appeal to the made cricketer (with growing calls on his leisure) to step into the breach for his county’s honour, whilst the non­ competition games would give the counties their opportunity to try cricketers in the making, in that sufficient trial which Mr. Toppin also urg- s, against aspiring oppo­ nents keen on proving their mettle. Cricket would benefit as a spectacle and as a genuine sport and, incidentally, the counties ought to reap the fruits of its increased popularity. This reminds me of a matter which I have not previously dealt with *, the suggestion that the struggle to avoid relegation, under a Divisional scheme, will induce an increase of safety play and drawn games. But will not the tendency be the other way? “ Wis­ den” assures us that amateurs generally will have none of the draw, and the infusion of this element will receive an impetus. As for the paid players, if they offended against the wishes of their clubs, the clubs would have an obvious remedy. Such a develop­ ment of the game could therefore arise only with the direct countenance cf the clubs interested. But what club iu its anxiety to reap the benefits of a higher position than its merits entitled it to would attempt that end by the suicidal means of playing a style of game that at once frustrated its purpose? Playing unattractive cricket, it would immediately lose more support than the retention of a false position could ever hold out any pros­ pect of its recovering. Beaides which, the point-scoring of the Divisional system would itself render any such attempt ineffectual. Under the present method of counting, a club that has won a single game can go on drawing to the end of its tether, and will still retain its illusory 100 per cent., or highest possible, of wins. But under the other reckoning a club that has gained one win scores one point only, and has got to go on winning in order to keep pace with the leader’s points. Similarly a club that has once lost a game or two has got to try to win as many in order to retrieve its position; drawing will not avail it but can only increase the likelihood of its going down. The tables in December’s Cricket showed that a minority of only 4 points (equalling 4 losses to a club that couldn't or wouldn't win) would several times have sufficed to lower a county’s status, and more than once a county would have had to accept that consequence after drawing half or more of its total of matches. Playing for the draw, then, could not save a county unless it deliberately laid itself out to that intent from the very outset, and was withal so strong as to be able to defeat the efforts of other clubs to beat it. And what a price it would have to pay! Unpopular with'its opponents, who would grudge giving it “ dates,” and with its own subscribers and patrons, it would deprive itself of any possible chance of rising above the ruck of the clubs and would practically efface itself. And a radically weak club could not even succeed in retaining its position by this sacrificial means. The Divisional system, indeed, promises to seal the doom of the draw, so far as climatic vagaries allow it to be remediable. Even if that were not so, the same end could easily be attained by depriving “ the Clock ” of its chief power of arbitrament. But that is another story. H.P.-T. CR ICKETING PRESSM EN . It has come at last! The captains of the first-class counties have condemned a “ section of the Press!” The particular section, though not specified, is easily under­ stood. In South Africa to-day one can pick up any of the Rand papers and find full reports of the M.C.C. matches contributed by members of the M.C.C. team with copious notes on the games. Such a state of affairs is really ridiculous, and the public can only come to the conclusion that the staff of the paper that finds it necessary to employ these amateur journalists must be very far from versatile in their scope, if unable to transact such simple duties as the report of important cricket............................. It is at least ivfra dip. to find members of the M.C C. acting as journalists, and ousting men who are fully qualified and have adopted journalism as a career. The captains of the first-class counties in their resolution have not been as explicit as circumstances demand. The fact of the matter is that several of the most influential English dailies employ well-known cricketers to act as critics of cricket. Conse­ quently, when these critics are active players, the fat is often in the fire, for they expose their own captains, committees and secre­ taries to frequent comment; on the fact that these critics have to criticise themselves, their team, and their opponents it is not necessary to dwell, except to emphasise the peculiar anomaly. Of course, it will be stated in extenuation that this is an age of specialists, but is that explanation enough for a system so obviously open to abuse ?— The Latest (Durban). GEORGE LEW IN & Co., (Established 1869.) Club Colour Specialists and A th letic Clothing Manufacturers. OUTFITTERS BY APPOINTMENT To the Australians, 1896,1899 and 1902 ; Mr. Stoddart’s XI., 1894- 1895, 1897 - 1898; Mr. MacLaren’s XI., 1901-1902 ; West Indian XI., 1900 and 1906 ; South Africans XI., 1901 and 1907; and M C.O., Lancashire, Kent, Surrey and London Counties, Wanderers, Stoics. Bromley, Sutton, and all Public Schools’ Old Boys' Clubs.—Write for E stimates F ree . 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