M.C.C. TEAM'S VISIT

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 11

M.C.C. TEAM'S VISIT

EECEPTIOX ON TUESDAY

With the 31.C.C. team's main party now on the way from Australia to Wellington, interest in the first match of the visitors' tour,: that against Wellington's representatives, has reached a high pitch. The touring team will be here on Tuesday, when Woolley and Cornford, who arrived this week, will,join up with them, and they will have three days in which to practise for the match, starting on Friday at the Basin Reserce. Every one of the eleven players selected to play against Wellington will be making his first appearance in New Zealand. It has been decided to start play at 2 p.m. on Friday, and whichever team has first use of the wicket, the first- day's play is bound to stir interest in the. play to follow. The match promises to be one of the most interesting ever played here. A civic reception is to be given the M.C.G. team at the Town Hall (concert chamber) at noon on Tuesday, and to this all cricketers and enthusiasts are invited by the Mayor (Mr. G. A. Troup), who will preside. . Tho Wellington Cricket Association announces that.it has a limited number of membership, tickets for the present seaSon. A notice regarding application for these is published elsewhere in this issue. WELLINGTON SELECTION. itA, ™vl' esP°«clent ("Hon. Member, W.C.A.') writes:—"JHr. P. R. Waddy's criticism of tho team picked to play next week misses the real point. It is not the selector who is to blame, but the management committee for failing to appreciate the real reason for this tour. The team has come oiit on an educative mission, to improve the general standard of iNe-nr Zealand cricket; consequently the more men who can play against the M.C.C. team the better. No player should bo included in the Wellington match who will meet the M.C.C. team in some other game, thereby blocking Wellington men iroin their only- chance of a game against our visitors.-■ For- instance, Lowrv Workeiy and Massey are all certain of games at Hawkes Bay and elsewhere, yet they are included in the Wellington team whi c promising colts who can only play in this match lost their chance. As so frequently happens nowadays, the game has ueen made subservient to the 'gate' The management committee has, through its selector,-picked the team" under Plunket Shield .conditions instead of realising this matcli has. no relation. whatever to the shield, and that the winning of the game is far less important than seeing that as many players as possible are given the invaluable experience of playing against the AI.C.L. team.''