James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annnual 1881

P A R T Ι. C H A P T E R I. T h e Australian T e a m. B YT H EA U T H O RF T H EC R I C K E TF I E L D.' A F T E Rthe second visit of an Australian Eleven, it is time to comparetheir style with ours , and to speculate as to their future , judging from their observed rate of progress . W h e nStephenson's Eleven first visited the colony , it was necessary to m a k ethe matches with sixteens or twenty-twos. Mr. Murdoch, in his speech at the Mansion House dinner, said , that from Stephenson's visit dated a decided advancement, and ' but for that visit he should not be speaking there .' Lord Harris's Eleven played even numbers, and probably the Colonies at the present time would find , if playing at h o m e, aneleven to play any eleven w e could send. A n d whynot ? In that sunny land m e npractise seven months to our four ; and if they have not as large a population , nor as m a n ycricketers from w h o mto select elevens , w e doubtif such difference of numbers is very material , for increased numbers of m e nafter a certain point merely present duplicates -m e nof equal pro- ficiency to puzzle our choice--and do not necessarily provide better speci- mens. Y o u might choose as good an eleven from a population of 5,000 cricketers as from 10,000 , barring the chance of an exceptional W. G.A Grace. A n dfor such a rare chance as this , the difference in the numberof play days in the year quite makes up for our larger field of selection.I HI As to the Australian play , they seem to have beaten us in one way- they have begun at the right end. Their forte is bowling and fielding ; while our fault has been to attach too muchhonour to batting . W h e n clubs used to give talent -money during a match, it was not so often the bowler , and never the fieldsman , but almost invariably the batsman, with his 50 runs , who was honoured with a speech , and presented with a bat or a sovereign . In our early days wedrifted into a badhabit of leaving the bowling to professionals . The result of engaging a professional for a county club has proverbially been to make the matches of that club one- sided , the innings being too long , because batting was practised out of all proportion to bowling. Time was when the neglect of bowling was easily to be explained . Withthe old underhand bowling fifty years since , the exercise of bowling was so easy and natural , and so pleasant to practise , that almost every cricketer was more or less in the habit of bowling . To bowl straight was easy enough , and a fair modicum of lengths was not difficult ; but when the round-arm bowling was introduced by Lillywhite and Broadbridge , the exercise involved an unnatural use of the muscles ; and with the leverage of an extended arm, the hand being below the shoulder , most players found that , without an exceptional muscular system , to bowl within a yard of the B