DOPED WICKETS CONDEMNED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 157, 29 March 1939, Page 9

DOPED WICKETS CONDEMNED

Wisden’s Review Of Cricket Season LONDON. March 27. In reviewing the last series of cricket tests between England and Australia, the editor of “Wisden’s Almanack,” Wilfrid H. Brookes, concedes that England had amazing luck in winning the toss four times. “But,” he says, "while not deluding ourselves that England, at the moment, was superior to Australia, the fine performances of young English players did much to restore cricket’s self-respect.'*

Brookes predicts that Hutton’s record score of 364 at the Oval in the last Test will stand for all time, but thinks that the supply of first-class bowlers in England does not afford the same satisfaction. Too many promising bowlers in their eagerness to experiment have departed from first principles. D. V. P. Wright (Kent), says Brookes, has been praised too highly, and bis form varied a lot.

The tear of waning interest in the Tests would disappear if there were more intense struggles like the Leeds match. First there was the exiension of time to four days and now there is a suggestion of a limit of 30 hours which, it is thought, would increase the chance of reaching definite results, but groundsmen’s influence has been increased. Preparing the Wicket. “Surely,” says flrookes, ‘‘there must be a body of experts capable of advising how to prepare a wicket which would last a certain number of days yet give a degree of liveliness and ensure a more even balance between bat and ball.”

So long as material was allowed to be used to modify the pace of a wicket, leaving, so he had been told, a greasy film on the surface, it must remain unresponsive to spin bowling and also prejudicial to the making of strokes. The writer cites the condemnation of Bradman and H. Sutcliffe of doped and over-prepared wickets. Brookes laments the unfortunate attempt to compare statistically the performances of W. G. Grace and Bradman. and points out that the former was 32 years old when he began and Bradman was 22. “Wisden’s” selects the following as the “five cricketers of the year”:— H. T. Bartlett (Sussex). W. A. Brown (Australia). D. C. S. Compton (Middlesex). K. Fames (Essex). A. Wood (Yorkshire).