James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1882

4 L I L L Y W H I T E ' SC R I C K E T E R S ' A N N U A L . acceptance and observance . Anyone who cares to go carefully through the code will find no difficulty inciting numerous instances in which the laws as they stand are wilfully broken day after day, not only in gamesof compara- tive unimportance , but in the principal matches ; not on obscure grounds , butunderthe very eyes of those whoare entrusted with the duty of seeing themproperly carried out. Whatvalid objections there can be to a re- construction or general revision of the laws of cricket it wouldbe difficult to say. It m a ybe argued that as the existing code has been sufficient for all the purposes of the game for years , the need of any alterations cannot be clearly established . On the other hand, the contention that it is the duty of those in w h o mis vested the government of the game to frame their laws so that they can be understood by an ordinary mind would seem to be a morelogical and conclusive line of reasoning . It can hardly be in the interests of the gamethat the doubts which are nowfatal to a proper under- standing of the rules should be allowed to exist , when even a few verbal amendmentswould makethemcomprehensible . It is no argument that the practice and general working of the rules are mostly understood , for happily the game is not confined to a select few who have mastered all the technicalities ; it is the pastime of thousands who have at the outset at least only the counsel of its laws to guide them. A n d what an amount of trouble would be saved , what an infinity of correspondence spared, to those who are considered qualified from a long and practical ex- perience to give an opinion on dubious points , were the committee of the M.C.C. even to explain some of the knotty points . It is ludicrous indeed to notice the extraordinary difference of ruling on some special questions . I could instance cases of the most serious importance in con- nection with cricket , on which I have heard the most practical and experienced judges of the game express diametrically opposite opin- ions. You have only to read the notes that have been written by experts from time to time on the various rules to see how urgent a solution of the problems some of them present has become. The im- perfect condition of the existing code reflects discredit on the court of cricket appeal . That it has been allowed to remain so for such a length of time is equally a reflection on the whole body of cricketers , to whose supineness it has been chiefly due that no action has been taken by those in authority . If the M.C.C. were only able to summonup sufficient resolution to undertake the task of revision they would bestow a lasting benefit on the game, and in the interests of the younger generation of players I venture to hope that they will not allow any consideration of the past to influence them in withholding what would be a boon to the cricketers of the present andthe future . Lord Charles Russell continues , " If they (i.e. the laws) are relaxed cricket becomes merely a pastime fit for youngm e nwhohave nothing better to do, or some middle-aged m e nwho wantan appetite ." This is really the question : is the game carried on strictly according to the laws enacted for its maintenance ? I humbly venture to think not. It only requires very slight reflection to call to mind several irregularities that occur every day. Take the duration of the interval between the innings or between the fall of a wicket and the appearance of the next batsman as a case in point . The bye laws in force at the chief Londongrounds, unless m yinformation is wrong, are absolutely at variance with L a w38, whichregulates the first of these matters, andthe effects of the contradiction were shown in one important match last year ,