Cricket 1911

D ecember 2 ,1911 . EUGBY FOOTBALL AND CEICKET. 585 CRICKET. Cricket in Australia. THE M.C.O. TEAM—PRANK LAVER—II. B. MINNETT. B y P. R. LE COUTEUR. i’ HE reports of Mr. Warner’s ill health are rather disquieting. He is evidently suf­ fering from the same trouble as indisposed him during the last half week of the Scar­ borough Festival, when he captained his Australian team intheir first united match, that against Lord Londesborough’sEleven. That this illness does not affect his batting is evident from his form in that game, and in the Champion County v. Rest of England match which immediately followed, and in which he made ( his record score. But to play under such conditions is painful to him, and a strain upon his constitution. Cricket­ ers took for granted that any such weakness would vanish during the sea-voyage. Unfortunately this has not been the case. It is to be hoped that the sunny Australian air and complete rest will combine to make him ready for the fray earlier than recent cables have suggested. The match against Victoria, which was won by the M.C.C. by 49 runs, contained nothing of outstanding interest, and was remarkable chiefly in two minor collapses, one in the Victorian first innings and the other in the M.C.C. team’s second innings. The first of these was brought about by the bowling of Douglas and Hitch. Both obtained 4 wickets in the innings, Douglas’s, however, being the best. Altogether in the match he took 8 for 78, excellent figures against a good batting side on a good wicket. In England, as a rule, only those bowling performances are thought worthy of remark which account for five or more wickets in an innings. It is not fair to bowlers to apply this criterion to Australian cricket. For on good Australian wickets it is rare that a bowler meets with success throughout the whole innings. To translate the value of an analysis in Australia into English terms, a good rule, perhaps, would be to add one wicket to the number obtained in each innings. For example, if we imagine this match against Victoria as having been played at Lord’s, the value of Douglas’s bowling would be expressed in the figures, 5 for 41, and 5 for 37. His success is all the more satisfactory in that Foster has not yet struck bowling form. One begins to doubt whether the latter has yet appreciated the necessity, the absolute necessity, of considerable changes of pace on the true wickets. A ball, even of the intrinsic worth of Foster’s, will not take a wicket there unless it forms part of a varied attack. One imagines that a really slow ball, wide on the off side and breaking away, would be of great use to him. It would often be hit hard, but it would sometimes get wickets. Even if it never got a wicket it would be useful for disturbing the batsman and making him try a new and vigorous scoring shot. The second of the two collapses in the Victorian match was brought about by Macrow, a new fast bowler who plays for Richmond, and Laver, the lion’s share being due to the latter. Some regard Laver as a “ back-number.” But this will not be true of him for many years to come. There is probably no cricketer in Australia who is keener for experiment and exploitation of new ideas than the genial Frank. A record of his experiments on the treatment of bat-faces before use would make of itself an interesting little volume. He is a keen baseballer, and is eager to apply to cricket his knowledge of the principles of the flight of a baseball. And his performances show that he is not only a theorist. A feature of his play to which attention is too seldom directed is his fielding. At close point he is simply extraordinary. With his immense reach he can make catches of many shots which an ordinary man is content to stop. And when the ball has once touched those big hands it never leaves them. Two names which are unfamiliar to English cricketers appeared in the Victorian side, Kyle and Brown. Neither is a young player. Kyle has been for some time the fast bowler of the Prahran eleven, one of the best sides in Mel­ bourne. He has considerable pace, but cannot make the ball come at anything but an easy height. He is short, and very strongly built, and can bowl everlastingly. How­ ever, he is not likely to be considered seriously as a candidate for the Australian side, though he probably is the best fast bowler in Victoria. Brown is a batsman and a slow leg- break bowler. He is well-known to Victorian cricketers, though he has never before represented the State. Until this season he has played regularly for Brighton, whose eleven is one of the best in the second grade in Melbourne. He is a batsman of the jovial type, who hits the ball in the same cheery way in which he sings “ The Death of Nelson ” in the pavilion. In the match against New South Wales three of the University eleven were playing for the home side, Barbour, McElhone and Minnett, the two former being batsmen, the latter a bowler, though Barbour and Minnett can also bowl and bat respectively. McElhone is a very fine cricketer. He had much to do with the success of the Sydney Univer­ sity eleven in the season before last, when for the first time in its history it obtained the premiership in the first class cricket of the State. To speak paradoxically, he is in a way like Prince Ranjitsinhji, in so far as neither resembles anybody. His style is difficult to describe. Perhaps the best description is in the word “ pantherlike.” It applies both to his batting and fielding. He is tall, slightly built, and of dark complexion. His fielding is fascinating in its subtle quickness and sureness. One cannot imagine a man more active and less obtrusively so. One finds one’s attention continually straying from the batsmen and bowler towards him at cover, for there is something fascinating in the way in which he moves about the field. His batting is the same. Every movement is made with a strange grace, one different from that of Spooner or that of Trumper, and really like no one that I know. To the bowler there seems to be a kind of softness in the way in which he meets the ball, but the ball travels just as quickly, nevertheless, as it does from the conventional stroke. He has interesting shots in all directions, and is never at a loss for a stroke. He is undoubtedly a cricketer who will be considered when the representative Australian team is chosen. Minnett is a medium to fast right-hand bowler with a fine off-break, a most useful man in Australia on any kind of wicket. He has played for his State before, but not against an English team. R I CHARD DAFT ’ S NOT T I NGHAMSH I RE MAR L.—Particulars apply RadclifTe-on-Trent, Notts.—(A dvt .)