THE WORLD OF SPORT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1067, 4 March 1911, Page 12

THE WORLD OF SPORT.

CRICKET.

THE PINCH OF FINANCE, {Br 'Use Bkeaeeb.l A Beautiful Buffer.' Tho r . Wellington. Cricket Association is in many respects ;i long-suffering body, ind the fact was tuKo again exemplified tju Tuesday evening}, when it was called ■upon to shoulder a''.toss that would otherwise .have fallen on': tho Port Nicholson 'Amateur Athletic Club. Defeated, by a copious downpour, in» an attempt to hold & sports meeting, the club followed the prevailing fashion an.l came to. tho association for relief.' A'Jso following tho fashion, tho association good-naturedly resi'Tied its solitary ground for still another Saturday. As a result 1 tho end-of-season cricket fixtures wore liadly cut up, and had to be hastily rearranged. Further, as the chairman of tho Management COlll- - pointed out in a spirit of inild resignation, the association is faced by just about tho samo 1-sss as would have fallen on tho Athletic Club if tho association had not been available as a buffer ■between tho club arid the hard edgo of circumstances. Th-> situation would contain an element of ,die ludicrous if it wero ■not a little painful from tho cricketing ipoint of view. Proceeding from the axiom ;that it is more Missed to give than to ■ receive, to bear thi-.n to inflict, it is no • doubt a good thins to stand as a philanthropic buffer in this way, but on strictly utilitarian grounds tho association would ;be justified in att?m;?ting to wriggle into situation . rather more favourable to "independent activity.- Kscape is not easy, and , cannot be rapid, but it ife possible. The task confronting" tho association'and its members is that of acquiring some Teal control over the green spaces , on. •which tho summer gamo is played. If they are not preparec' to taclde it, they : may as well resign all pretensions to an activo and vigorous promotion of the good old gamo of cricket, and hang out a : sign, "Sports .bailies accommodated, on :. their own terms." 'An Elementary Effort. , : Appropriately, at a period'when the af- '■ fairs, of the association are at a critical pass,'its members are to bo given an opiportimity of proving the.niettlo that is in them. There is at tho present time an overdraft of about ,£3OO, arid with intent to wipe it off tho slate au art union has .been-organised. It is a minor effort, but it .can bo carried to a successful issue ' only. by ■ tho united -endeavours of tho clubs affiliated to the association and "their individual players. The .result will : supply, a useful indication of the spirit. , by which tho c'rickctors of 'Wellington are auijnatpd.. They arc offered here.an; : .elemental?- -opportunity of proving them- ' selves- capable of a. united effnrt for tho': welfare of cricket in general. If they fail' ; in; this: it' Twill be'reasonable to assumo V that ~they,.are. ■ incapable of attaining success-in any ,larger activity. On tho' other ;'hand. .if the overdraft disappears •as the;<result of. a successful rally, those to whom the control of .cricket is delegated\ • will bo. imcouragcd to embark on somo moro a'mbitious programme with a'view to enlarging tho cramped scope in which cricketers now pursuo thiir pastime. |

Apathy; and Enterprise'. The ; position of the association at the present time cannot certainly be describ- . Ed as comfortable, but it does not follow of necessity , that it is unhealthy. An junbiased.survey of tho position will show (that gdb.d prospects exist, although they call for - a great deal of development. The satiation is hopelessly cramped in the matter of groxmds, and, as was" noted a little while ago, snorts bodies with misfortunes, periodically crowd it out of the ground to which it has uow an unsatisfactory title. About tho fhiancial .position theless said the better. It is worio than it has'been for years. Happily thero arc brighter features in the- prospect. Next' season several interprovfincial games will probably be played, in Wellington, with results of substantial benefit to the exchequer of tbe association. Better .and : more important th.m this is the fact that a. 1 policy. of Jjold enterprise has already produced'admirable results, with promise (if others to follow in their train. When 1 the. association retained the services of

: J. V. S,\unders it was well advised. His ■ employment as groundsman and coach > has led to. an improvement in wickets Shat in itself justifies a departure .that nppeared, .wbon it wr.s, made, .ambitions. , The inauguration of skilled, and sysi tematic coaching also,.has produced ap- ' parent benefits, and a mi rubor- of youn;; : -jilayers aro coming on at ft rats that : augur.4 v.'ell for their' own future careers ; as cricketers, and for the "future of cricket in Wellington. If a: doubt clouds .', tho prospect it is n doubt as to whether . the cricketers of Wellington aro capable • of moving and acting-in-un:'s-mifor,-jtlte ; common good.-- In tlio i>a;."fc things have I>oen left, too much to' a lew willing workers, and there has necessarily been a limit to what they could accomplish.' At times, in tho background of things, there has been some needless talk of club in- . terests; as against those, of iho associa"tion, but a'-much mora important and. unfortunate, factor has been an apathetic indifference in .the great majority of players to efforts made by the-central

cricketing executive to improve the local > conditions and surroundings of tho. game. ' / Incentives to Progress. Regarding the apathy of cricketers in tho past, ono might be tempted to despair of them doing any hotter in the itituro dill there not exist in the immediate present undeniable incentives to pro- ■ grcss and endeavour. So, set down in 1 and white, the steps that cricketers must follow in order to set the game in Wellington on a sounder footing would : bo no easy matter, but in an improving htandard of play .and improving'wickets' ; they have the .foundation essential to an advance movement of tho kind. If local cricket is to be lifted to a position of greater dignity than it enjoys at present; and to attain (in enlarged scope, it can " be done' only by providing tho public with better and more attractive cricketing spectacles—better crickei in fact. Tho money trouble will soon end with that. End-of-Season Games. Unfortunate from, the financial point of view the hasty 'reorganisation of tho games should, in one light, lead. to good result*. The prospect of a three-day contest between East A and , Central A should sut"-ce to draw many spectators to the Basin Reserve. Judged on form they have lately display-ad both teams should bo capable of stoutly maintaining the struggle for supremacy over the full time allotted, ami tho contest should prove a memorable .one. The arrangement originally proposed was that tho four leading teams should bo drawn lor semi-final matches, and that in a couple of final matches winners should play winners and losors _ loser.-. Tho modified arrangement which the association has now been forced to adopt may very probably lead to much more inter- - esting games than if tho two-day limit had been retained. "Always Genius' About Trumper."

An F.nglish writer pays Ihc following high i::,'iiii>liiAent to Victor Trujnper:— There was always the touch of genius about Trumpor—even when he was' at a, public elementary school in Sydney, and plaved on asphalt vrith a composition ball and a crude bat. Everybody praised his style—even though it was unorthodox—aiid predicted a career. And, for once everybody was right! When tho boy went "to practise on Sydney Cricket Ground, "Charlie" Bannerman took such an intrrcst in him that Trumper might have been his son. At that time the people used to talk nlxmt "Little Trumper's style" and when lie was only two months beyond his seventeenth "birthday ho was asked to go to Adelaide and play for New South Wales against South Australia. He was such a boy that his father made a great deal of fnss before ho would allow him to go. This match during January, 1895, was his first appearance in class colonial cricket, and it is peculiarly. appropriate, tlion, that he should on the saino mead make tho highest soore ever hit for Australia in any Test match, as at last W. i. Murdoch's 211 at Kennington .Oral, in

A WEEKLY RECORD OF SPORTS A.ND.OTHER PASTIMES,

188-1, and Sydney Gregory's 201 at Sydney in 1891,. have been surpassed. Nor'i'u this tho first time that Trumper has flogged South African bowling, for, wo recall 218 not out against fifteen of the- Tr.ansvaal at Pretoria, in 1902. •Tho statisticians tell lis-that-Trumper and Hill ivivo alouo scored over,2ooo runs in test matches. But Truniper rises above comparison tho jniistcr of the World with the bat at this day, 'iind challenging W. G. Grace and Prince lfanjitsinhji as tho most brilliant of alt modern heroes at tho wicket. South Africans: "Tho Bursting of? Reputation," 1 Before tho South Africans came to Australia. tho view was expressed that they would, bo 110 match for tie Australians, but a number of critics pc-ferred to wait before, expressing an opinio:. (saijS the Sydney "Daily Telegraph"). It was said that.tho South. Africans'.."googly". bowling might turn the scale in their favour. The truth is that Soiv'Ji Africans have not bowled as a genera'! thing "googly" balls in Australia. Sch.varz is not a "googly" bowler. He bowls off breaks with a Ids-break action, all tho time. A "googly" bowler -is ono who breaks both ways .with tho s'a'mo..,action.,'.,,Faulkner and Llewellyn bowled-leg-breaks with au occasional -'ivronr 'un," but they came so rarely that they were noi ' dangerous. Vogler, described by some. critics as the finest bowler . 111 the . world, could not bowl at all in Australia,. Ho found the wickets too good to turn a ball on. Pegler and Nourse were .medium-paced, straight-ball bowlers, who only fed tho first-flight batsmen.'.. The visitors wero also hajidicappcd in not having enough variety. They had no fast bowler, and their slow bowling was hit by tho Australian top-uotchors. Their batting, too, was altogether too patchy to win test matches. So far as batting is concerned Faulkner has had to carry the. team. on. fiia Two others made oenturie? in the match won by the South'--Africans) but-both were missed in the field. The batting side was a head with a very long tail. The series hfid been remarkable for tho bursting of imputation. On the other hand it has slii-ivji. Sherwell to bo the best wiclcetkeoper playing the. game, whilo Faulkner stanas -out. as being in tho first flight of living- batsmen. An Interesting Suggestion. Suggestions are being . made in tho South African press that on . the. return of the. South Africans the next eleven should meet again. The-following letter is typical of many:— '

"Conld not arrangements be made for a match 'to bo blayed here, on the return of tho Australian team between Sherwell's men and.tho rest of South Africa? It is customary in Australia, oil tho return of a team from England, to test it against tho rest of Australia, and in England, at tho conclusion of a tour, a similar game is usmlly arranged for the ensuing fixture. The Question .will, of course, be raised, is .it'possible for.South Africa to put into..the field an eleven good enough to extend Sherwell's men? I have no doubt : af= to that. The whole of the cricketing talent of the country is not at present in Australia. Take/a few names from which a South African eleven could be chosen, by wny of example. There are F. Mitchell (apparently at the ton of his form), Gordon, White, I. Difford, Lo Houx,. Thomnson, Baumgartner, Taylor, Carter, G. Hartigtm,, Cook, Gross, Norton, S. D. Snooke, IT. Bisset. Whitehead, etc. Thero is not tho slightest " doubt •that a very strong 'team could be got together from these, arid others whose .names will occur to your readers. • Tho suggestion is certainly worth considering. and tho match would bo unquestionably d great draw."