Cricket 1914

THE WORLD OF CRICKET. M a y 9, 1914. B u t Australia has quite a number of young players of high promise, besides men like Mavne, Matthews, and others already salted to the big game. B a r i n g , Massie, Moyes, Collins, Donald Steele, Park, Cody, Mailey, Campbell, Ryder, Fennelly, Pellew, and Ironmonger have claims to consideration ; and with such as Trumper, Ransford, Mayne, Kelleway, Matthews, and others to choose from would make up quite a good team. The men they w ill have to meet, though they have under­ gone their baptism of fire in the tests, are a young side ; and though the m atting w ickets may be against the Aus­ tralians, they will not be more so than they were against the English team. R e c e n t l y an effort was made to form a Cricket Association for Trinidad. The Association has been formed, but the effort can hardly be regarded as completely successful, nevertheless. For Queen’s P ark refused to join. Now as everyone who knows anything about West Indian cricket is aware, a Trinidad Cricket Association which does not include Queen’s P ark resembles— to use a rather out-worn simile— the p lay of “ Ham let ” w ithout the Prince of Denmark. Lord Hawke, Sir A rthur Priestley, Lord Brackley, Mr. A . F. Somerset, and Mr. Pelham Warner m ight all be called as witnesses were it necessary to prove this contention in a court of law. T h e game is not on the up-grade in the West Indies. A sure sign of this is the abandonment of the intercolonial competition which, a t first biennial, later became annual, and provided some excellent contests. Latterly, the white population seems to have lost interest in the game, which has fallen too much into the hands of the coloured section in consequence. F o r enthusiasm, these W est Indian cricketers of the race of Ham cannot be beaten anywhere. For judgment— well, th a t’s another story. And there have been whispers that their zeal for victo ry often outruns their zeal for fair play. On this point several queer stories could be told. T h i s is not an indictment of the race. B ut it should be recognised th at one of the great features of cricket as played in lands of mixed population is the manner in which it brings men of diverse races together on a common plane ; and for th at reason one considers th at it will b ea bad day, not only for the game, but in other ways, for the West Indian islands should the white population ever let it pass into the hands of the coloured section. Y e a r s ago Trinidad used to put into the field a side which included six, seven, or eight white men, and five, four, or three coloured. On the last M.C.C. tour the Trinidad side was mainly if not entirely a coloured one. C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s to Mr. John Cornish White, the left- hand bowler who did such fine work for Somerset in the earlier part of last season, on his approaching marriage. His fellow-members of the Stogumber C.C., which he captains, presented him w ith a handsome silver teapot and cream jug, and his old schoolfellows (he is a Taunton School man) with a silver coffee service. A n d congratulations to Mr. E . V. Sale, the Auckland batsman, one of the best in New Zealand, and a footballer of repute to boot, who will have entered the state m atri­ monial before this number reaches Maoriland. Sale only played in one big match during the last season, being unable to get aw ay w ith the Auckland team that went south, but in that one he ran up a century against the Australian bowlers. The Game and How to Play it. B y A. C. M a c L a r e n . I n the accompanying photo of Hobbs m y readers will observe the correct methods employed for the purpose of bringing off the straight drive to mid-off. The stroke differs from the cover drive (illustrated last week), in that the bat is practically straight for the practically straight hit. The importance of these action photographs cannot be exaggerated, so far as young players are concerned, and it will possibly surprise many when I mention th a t of the boys in the first game a t Harrow School there are not two outside the five old choices who strike anything approaching the correct attitude for the off-drive, and 75 per cent, h it with the right shoulder instead of with the left. Balls that should be driven to mid-on go in the direction of point and cover, because the left shoulder is kept abso­ lutely out of the picture, which necessitates the chest being swung round to face the bowler and deprives the batsman of reach. Unfortunately, this is not due to shortage of practice, but to the accumulation of faults th at have failed to be eradicated at private schools. There is no doubt in m y mind th a t the absence of driving to-day amongst our young players— and this does not apply only to them— is due to the nonsense that was written a few seasons ago about the two-eyed stance and the import­ ance of turning the full face to the bowler, which is abso­ lutely and entirely unnecessary. There is not one boy in a hundred who is able to adopt the two-ey&d stance w ithout showing far too much chest to the bowler. Private schools m ay have their own opinion, and w ithout in the least wishing to pose in any light but that of a friend to them, I cannot refrain from telling them th at the public schools to-day are sent up boys who do not know one quarter of what boys knew tw enty years ago, so far as their cricket education is concerned. In those days the boy of fourteen knew how to p lay a straight ball with a straight bat, and a crooked ball w ith a crooked bat, how to spank a long hop, how to h it a half­ volley, and how to cut the ordinary short ball. To-day the boys of sixteen from these schools — schools which have produced good players, too— have to be taught the very A .B.C. of the game that they ought to know backwards. There are exceptions, but very few. It is a very serious state of things ; and unless there is a big alteration in the methods employed to-day a t m any of the preparatory schools our amateur cricket is going to suffer very much in the future. Where you saw seven or eight masters tw en ty years or so ago playing daily with the boys at cricket, you m ay now see one, and he is sometimes the French master. The other six are playing golf ! It is not entirely the masters’ fault, for it is unreasonable that they should not have their relaxation ; but golf is a very exacting game, and too many who once gave their body and soul to their boys’ cricket education have long since succumbed to the charm of golf, and no longer live the delightfully unselfish life which their boys did not fail to appreciate. Some will wonder at my plain speaking ; but others, knowing m y experience of boys a t private and public schools, will not wonder, for they know the extraordinary backwardness of the public school cricketer compared to his brother of twenty years ago. I suggest that our coaches should never cease to din into the ears of their charges this maxim : K e e p t h e l e f t s h o u l d e r w e l l f o r w a r d .