Cricket 1913

F eb . 15, 1913. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 53 South African Cricketers. T H E C U R R IE CUP TOURN AM EN T . ] ohannesburg, January 13, 1913- In our own modest little way we have had quite a busy time during the last four weeks. Six of the ten 1 Currie Cup matches arranged were played during this period, and it is with these games 1 purpose wearying you this mail. Wearying you! did I say? Well, possibly if you are interested in the future o f South African cricket— as I trust you are— or if, may be, you are anxious to hear something on which to base an early opinion as to prospects o f the next M .C .C . winning the rubber in this country, you may not find the story so tedious after all. At the outset, let me tell you that our cricket orchards at the present time are full o f blossoms, though the future alone can show how the fruit will ripen. No farmer, nowadays, counts his crops until the harvest is reaped, and wre know only too well in the cricketing world that there is many a slip and nasty fall between a colt’s debut and his earning an international cap. Indeed, the experience o f the last month has not been without its setbacks for one or two young players from whom we had confidently anticipated better things. It is a mistake to condemn a promising young cricketer 011 one, two, three, or even half-a-dozen failures; but unfortunately the number of representative games played in South Africa is so small that a man who fails on the } rare opportunities presented him o f showing his capabilities | in good company must give way to the player who achieves what the other only promises to do, even though the unsuccessful man may theoretically possess higher | attributes. This is one of the many handicaps under which we labour— the difficulty o f ascertaining the real merits o f our young players. I dwell on this because I feel convinced that all our cricketing centres possess players of great natural gifts, who merely lack essential opportunities o f developing their talents. Very few o f those who have as yet made a name for themselves received the tutoring they should have had in their schooldays. Recently, in conversation with D . Taylor, an elder brother o f H. W., and a member of the Natal team, I asked him who the coach was at Michael House— the school from which hail the Taylors and many other good cricketers. To my surprise, he told me they had none; they taught themselves. In his and his brother’s day they had a master who was very keen, and set them an example in this direction, but who 1 otherwise could teach them little. Michael House is by no means alone in this respect. This refers principally to batting, and is intended to show that South African boys possess, a natural aptitude for this branch o f the game. In bowling, too, the same may be said ■ but here the lack o f competent coaching is even more evident. In the December issue, the Editor j refers to the absence o f length bowling in Johannesburg Second League cricket. The Johannesburg Second League is not peculiar in this respect. Bad length bowling is rampant in every class o f cricket, from the lowest to the highest, in this Country. The boy has been allowed to .indulge his inclination to bowl breaks, regardless of | where the ball pitches, and it is only whenhebecomes matured that he appreciates how ineffective this type of bowling is without a length. Some fewremedy the j defect, but they are very few. Fielding, it is painful to record, is neglected; but Nature has endowed the South African youth with a greater suppleness and keenness o f vision than she has conferred 011 his English cousin, or, perhaps, it is that | his mode o f life tends more to this development. Be this as it may, the art o f fielding at least moderately well, as it is not the most difficult part o f the game to learn, is picked up fairly readily w'hen the boy has grown to realise that he must be able to stop a ball if he is to remain in good company. I am afraid I have strayed somewhat from the path, yet all I have said has close reference to the Currie Cup contests. The two principal motives underlying this competition are the promotion of public interest in the game, and the development of latent powers in the players. So far, everything else that has occurred in this season’s tourney has been dwarfed by H. W. Taylor’s great individual effort, on behalf o f Natal and at the expense o f the Transvaal. During recent years Natal has been gradually forcing herself to the forefront of South African cricket, but it is only within the last twelve months that her claims have been universally acknowledged as just. When she won the Cup in the last tournament (two years or so ago) there were conspiring causes— so it was said— in that the tournament was held in Natal, and most o f the Transvaal’s best players were in Australia. In beating the Transvaal handsomely on the Wanderers’ ground for the first time, Natal only "did what she was expected to do. It will be seen from the names o f the Transvaal team that many men whom one would expect to see included were absent, notably L. J. Tancred, S. J. Snooke, R. Beaumont, J. W. Zulch, I,. A. Strieker, and G. C. White. The reasons for this are many and varied. Briefly summed up, it may be said that Beaumont, I Strieker, White, and also Campbell, are, to use a colloquialism, “ fed up ” with cricket. Only Beaumont of the quartette named has played at all since their return, | and he only twice. Zulch is farming some way out of town; but he expressed his willingness to play for a part o f the match. Under this condition his services were, naturally, not accepted. Tancred and Snooke, the only two o f the Transvaal South African contingent (excepting Ward, who is living in the country) w'ho have “ played the game ” by their clubs and the public, have not shown form sufficient to justify their inclusion to the exclusion of any o f those who played. In connection with the i suggestion that the other Transvaal members o f the S.A. team have not played the game, an exception might be made in the case of Pegler, who is now turning out ; regularly. I have reason to believe the Selection Committee imagined they had picked the strongest available Transvaal eleven ; but the public suffered under no such delusions. The absence o f Le Roux’s name alone marked the side as