Cricket 1911

November 13, 1911. RUGBY FOOTBALL AND CRICKET. 573 CRICKET. Cricket in Australia. THE M.C.C. TEAM — SWERVING BOWLERS — LEFT-HANDED BATSMEN. B y P. R. LE COUTEUR. te, the M.C.C. team is still ,e distance from Adelaide, tout in the rough waters I reat, Australian Bight, r two they land and have experience of the fast the Adelaide ground. No ward there has been some ice. Excellent prepara­ tion this is for Australian wickets. One could not devise a better introduction to the most profitable scoring strokes in Australia than batting on a wet deck. The ball comes quickly from wet wood, and keeps low, very much lower than it does on a good English wicket in July oi* August. These two peculiarities are characteristic of Australian wickets, though certainly the ball does not keep so low as it does on a wet deck. On a fast and true pitch the batsman seldom receives a ball much higher than the top of the stumps. Of course some bumping bowlers can make it “ fly ” even on a perfect wicket, though never to the same degree as in England, unless the wicket is worn and crumbled. Speaking generally, however, the ball comes about stump high. With this easy height it is fast, and true, turning not at all, or very little. This combination renders batting comparatively easy, and makes possible and profitable various strokes which in England would be impossible or too dangerous. A striking example is the typical Australian drive, a long swinging shot. It is often made successfully at a ball short enough to cut. These characteristics of a good Australian wicket are due to the nature of its surface, which is smooth to the touch and quite slippery to walk upon. A caretaker of one of the Melbourne grounds used to boast that given good weather he would prepare a surface so glossy that it would be impossible to strike a match upon it. In preparing pitches the usual practice is to flood completely the chosen piece of ground two or three days before the match, and as it dries to roll it con­ tinually, at first with a heavy roller later with a light one. The grass is bleached during this process and pressed into the turf. Consequently the wicket appears sharply con­ trasted with its surroundings, a yellowish strip on a green background. On a good wicket prepared after this fashion it is quite usual to see the ball still spinning after it has hit the ground with the same spin which was intended to make it break. It slides off as it would off a glass surface. Unless a bowler takes care to make the circumference of the spin hit the ground, he cannot hope to make the ball bite and break. Since the average Australian pitch is so good and gives no help to the bowler (excepting always, of course, the “ sticky ” wicket), one is led to wonder why Australian bowlers in the past have not used the atmosphere more, why they have not cultivated the swerve. Of course, in England it is a comparatively late development. Occa­ sional bowlers may have swerved years ago, but they were few and far between. It is only recently that the nature of the ball has been understood, so that it may be explained and the delivery and grip taught, that peculiar grip between the thumb and first and second fingers of the seam which by this means is kept during flight at a constant angle to the line of flight. In the period during which knowledge of the swerve has developed so considerably in England no corresponding development has taken place in Australia. Why is this ? The usual answer is that it is impossible to swerve in Australia because the atmosphere does not allow it. Probably this is due, it is said, to its dryness, lightness, in short to its non-resisting character ! And in support of this view i is pointed out that George Hirst and Blythe, particularly Blythe, have been unsuc­ cessful there. Against this it might be said that it is possible to swerve in Australia, for it has been done. Noble and Laver for many years have bowled a swerve. It has not been with them a very decided or definite kind of ball. Neither bowler has been quite sure when the swerve would come, nor could he get it without some help from the wind. Their methods were not those used now in England. Laver’s swerve was a spin swerve, obtained, baseball fashion, by spinning the ball, one side thus being made to travel faster through space than the other. Nevertheless, the fact remains that he and Noble both certainly swerved. This casts doubt on the truth of the general statement that swerving is impossible in Australia. An argument that appeals more to cricketers at the present time is the fact that Whitty now undoubtedly swerves in Australia. Last season, during the visit of the South Africans, he developed a most decided swing, quite as much, it is said, as Hirst in England. The answer to the question why this kind of bowling has not developed in Australia within the last five years seems to be that it has not yet been thoroughly exploited there. Before last season the only attempts made were made in accordance with methods unsuited to the peculiar construction of a cricket ball, or at least not especially suited to it. For this reason the M.C.C. team this season must have a particular interest for cricketers. The swerving ball, bowled in the latest, most approved, and best understood fashion, will be the subject of a thorough trial. This trial will depend mostly upon Douglas and Foster on the visiting side, and Whitty on the home side. There is now a curious reversal to some extent of the conditions which held when the last Australian team visited England. England’s most reliable bowlers at that time were her left-handed swervers. For their discomfiture came Australian left-handed batsmen. Now the striking feature at the outset of this tour is the presence in the English team of three left-handed batsmen who are to attempt Whitty’s discomfiture—and Hordern’s, or what­ ever googly bowler may be tried. It would not be sur­ prising, however, to find these bowlers displaced imme­ diately the left-handers came to the wickets. Australian medium-pace and fast bowlers, whom necessity compels to be on the alert for any weakness in the opposing defence, will probably find that just where they themselves are strongest these three batsmen are weakest. If Kinneir, Mead and Woolley have a weakness, it is in dealing with that slip-catch ball pitched outside the off-stump., Whatever be the result of the Test rubber, Australian cricket generally will be greatly benefited by this tour. It will benefit in the direction of a development in bowling. The cricket-loving Australian will see two men bowling, similar left-handed swerves, one of them on his own side, the other on the visiting side, and the inevitable com­ parison of their methods, and the interest aroused by their especial days of good fortune, must result in increased general knowledge of this kind of ball. First-class googly bowlers will be under examination. And the most accurate bowler in-' the world, Barnes—perhaps too accurate—will be present to exhibit the highest development of “ non­ trick ” bowling. HILE I wrii at sea som tossing ab of the G In a day o their first wickets of doubt on 1 net pract