Canadian Cricket Field Volume 1 1882

A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF CRICKET IN CANADA. VOL. I. JUNE 21, 1882. No. 5 Wi1 be published twice in May, twice ln September, and Weekly during the in- Correspndentsare reques/ed l sent in contributionsiby oe.frst mail on Monday to bc in lime for Wednesday's issue. Sebscrbliot /rice, $ e.So p r atnun, in advace. Ailvertisittg rates au aplicalisli. Al co,nmunications Io be addressed, 7HE CANADIAN CRlCKE T FIELD, Box 347, 7bronto. Oit. TORONTO, JUNE 21-ST, 1882. WICKET-KEEPING. Too much attention cannot be paid to this important place in the field. There it is that correctness of eye, pluck and nerve are required in a high state of develop- ment, besides the most undivided attention to the gane. The wicket-keeper, by rights, should stand within reach of the wickets, so as to t.ke any chance for stuniping, and be ready to receive a quick return fron the field. Although this rule is followed universally in England and Australia, yet in Canada few wicket-keepers play in their proper place. The majority of men stand sharp short slip, and one, who for some years vegetated in Toronto, invariably played nearer to the long-stop than his wickets. The Americans of Philadelphia, too, must needs have their own method, which is to nake the wicket-keeper do long-stop's duties as well as his own, vhich double occupation necessitates his standing somne twelve feet back from and directly behind the wickets. This plan has only one advantage ; it gives one more man to field. It is needless for us to say that this is net cricket.. Batsmen are thus permitted to stay in their ground, or not, just as they please, and naturally enough they, as often as not, follow the latter course, and the bowler's power is very materially weakened thereby. To compare the American style vith the English is like con- trasting the clumsy actions of Haines behind the wickets at the International Match of last year, with the grace- ful performance on the saine day of Waud, who, by-the- by kept wickets for the Gentlemen in two matches against the Players in 1860. Good wicket-keepers should increase amongst us, as there are plenty of models to learn from. It only requires practice and a faithful observance of rules, together with the essential qualities of a good cricketer. CRICKET IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The public schools nay be fitly terned the back bone of English cricket They are the inaxhaustible feeders of the county and other elevens, and as such play a most imin- portant part in the building up of the gaine. A boy frot any of these institutions, if he find his way to Canada, is eagerly picked ip as a valuable addition to any club, and ranks, as a player, with the best men of that club. The average public school-boy contrasts fairly with tha nost accomplished of our local men. And it is to the training of the boys of our colleges and high schools here that attention must be turned, if we vould grow a successful crop of cricketers. At school there is always leisure for the game, and the susceptible nature of the boy becomes easily stinulated by the example of his associates. Upper Canada College and Trinity College School have done much to develop cricket in this country, but they have been handicapped by their modus docendi. The only wy to teach a boy or any one else cricket is to get a pro- fessional coacl. He may be bowled at for a century by one of his school-mates without ever mastering the rudi- ments of batting, whereas a few weeks coaching by a pro- fessional bowler vould save him from falling into a clumsy style, and inculcate in him honest and true conceptions of the game. It would cost little to have such a man at our public schools for a month or two every year, and there are no institutions in the country that can stand the ex- pense so well. Cricket should be here, as in England, a vholesome and essential part of every boy's liberal educa- tion. There will always be a large proportion who, on leaving school, give up cricket for the busier occupa- tions of life; necessity denands this in many instances; but there are, perhaps, just as nany who give it up because they are dissatisfied with the resuilts of thoir experience. They have never been properly taught, never learned the elementary principles of the gaine, and so never have a sure footing for a further step. Those that do go on never attain to anything better than mediocrity, and so the scores in our best matches seldon get over the century. At Cheltenhan there were last year four regular. and two occasional professionals, and the boys that passed under their tuition will be in the future vhat those are to- day, who, after three years of university life at Cambridge, have readily disposed of Australia's crack eleven. And no eleven in England changes year after year as does that of a university, for it nust always lie undergraduate, and undergraduates are short-lived. But their constantly