CRICKET BOOMERANG

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 24

CRICKET BOOMERANG

O’Reilly Through With the

“NOT WORTH A CANDLE’’

“You can tell the world that I am definitely through with big cricket,” said Bill O’Reilly to a Sydney journalist. “Despite what the general public might think, the game isn’t worth a candle. Most of tnv friends thought I was joking when I said that I was finished, but I was never more serious in mv life- /■ “Definitely there is no money in Australian cricket for the player,” said; Bill. “The only time that an international cricketer even gets a little out of his abilities is every four years when the English trip is on. and a man can’t live on a bonus every four years.

“Flaying in Australia is a losing proposition, despite the huge gates that keep th.e turnstiles clicking, and in future I’m sticking to my job. Prior to the trip to the other side I was out of pocket over the big matches played in Australia, and I am not going to be caught again.” What a tragic swan song, comments a Sydney paper. What a deplorable state of affairs the management of Australian cricket must be in when the world’s greatest bowler, the man whose fame we sung so loudly a few months ago, is to be allowed to slip from public view because the expense incurred in playing a professional game is too great. Test cricket in Australia from the players’ point of view, is a financial flop. Bill O’Reilly has proved it by experience. O’Reilly wishes to make it clear that he is not out to make money quickly, but at the same time he fails to see why he should make a public holiday at his own expense. During the last series of Tests O’Reilly’s name was a by-word among all Australian cricket fans; to-day be. promises to slip into oblivion almost as quickly as he rose to fame, because tlie Australian Board of Control in its penny-wise pound-foolish attitude expects money for nothing. Fancy Test players asked, to forgo : home comforts, travel round the States; often at. the neglect of their life’s work all day for a paltry few shillings—mere cigarette money—while the coffers of the Board of Control bulge and creak. When asked about the possibilities of cashing in on one of the good jobs that are supposed to be offered to till our star players, O’Reilly shpwed his sense of humour.

“I’ve heard all about the good things the same as everybody else,” ho said, “but that’s about all there is to most of them.

“Y.es, I’ve had some offers,” he re-

plied, “but I prefer to stick to the job I’ve got.” So that’s that.

O’Reilly confessed that he did have some good offers on the other side, but he preferred to remain in his own land, and so here he is. He’s with us. and yet not wth us. The man whose brilliant trundling played a great, part in bringing “the Ashes” back home is lost to the game just at a period when we are beginning to look forward to the fireworks in the near future.-