MYSTERIES OF CRICKET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 6, 17 March 1947, Page 3

MYSTERIES OF CRICKET

YANK DESCRIBES MATCH CONFUSING AMERICA’S IDEA OF SPORT An attempt to initiate American readers in the mysteries of cricket is made in the New York “Sunday News” by Robert Sullivan, who further confuses America’s muddled thinking on the sport by calling it “a stately ritual with religious overtones, a ritual couched in terms as mysterious, and filled with motions as obscure, as some strange Oriental faith from somewhere behind the Himalayas.” Here are some of his observations:— “The turf should be well cared for. English turf, with a long history' is best. In Australia, a long mat is laid down on the pitch, because the Australian turf is Johnny-come-lately stuff, crude, and coarse, like most colonial products. “There are all kinds of batting, from mere blocking, which is a defensive and cowardly manoeuvre, to a wild swipe at the ball.

“A match can last three or four days, depending on its importance and the patience and fortitude of the players and the spectators. “To an American the pace of the game is maddening. There is no cheering, only some wild occasional applause or a polite cry of “Oh, well bowled!”

“It is traditional to wear a scarf to hold up the pants, due to the fact that the bat handle might click against the buckle and make the umpire think that bat and ball had connected.

“The British took the game to Australia, a move which now sometimes seems a mistake. The Aussies are deadly serious about the sport. Demon Spofforth had once terrorised the English with his maniacal bowling, but there came a time when the Aussies had become such thorough cricketers that they objected to similar British tactics.

“The adoption of body bowling by the English nearly brought on an international crisis. Finally the Australian Secretary of State had to make representations to Ramsay MacDonald.”

“Lord's is the home of the Ashes. Many years ago, when the Aussies had beaten the britches off the British, one of the papers said they had ’cremated the English team and scattered the Ashes to the wind.’

“The Merlon Cricket Club, Philadelphia, bnce the outpost of the best cricket outside England, has now degenerated to golf and tennis, but this club used to play the best English teams and made a good showing, too.

“A recent Labour Party suggestion that the M.C.C. should be nationalised was really a ponderous English joke, but many hearts of oak failed to recognise it.

“The poor showing of the English against the Australians has been suggested as the reason why the Labour Party had the temerity to mention nationalisation. Some Labour members feel that a common touch is needed to bring the quality of English play to what it should be, but it is unlikely that the Government could survive the storm that would arise from tampering with the M.C.C., the Vatican of cricket, which is held as holy by the man who votes Labour as it is by the crustiest Tory.”

Of Spofforth, the only Australian singled out for special mention, Sullivan says: “His fanatical and dangerous playing reduced his batting opponents to cringing jellies. Some of these men were so good, or had reputations so great, that it was considered folly or herioism,’ depending on the point of view, to face him. Many of them turned cricket into one-man exhibitions.”