THE ENGLISH CRICKETERS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 20 November 1901, Page 4

THE ENGLISH CRICKETERS.

Maclaren Interviewed. Mr Maclaren, in the course of an interview on his arrival at Perth (Western Australia), stated that he looked upon his team as a strong combination, and, while he declined to deal with players individually, he was willing to give information about the team as a whole. 'lt is all rot,' he added, "for cetain people in England to say that the team is not representative. It includes seven men who played in the last test matches in England. Stoddart could not say that of 1894 and 1897 teams. In batting lies our strength, and I shall be very much surprised if our side fail to score. I should like to have brought Ranjitsinhji, Fry, and R. E. Foster with me, but the two former failed me after practically promising to join, and Foster from the first was a doubtful starter. In the bowling department we have two left handers in Gunn and Blythe, while I am looking forward to Braund's leg curlers troubling your batsmen. Barnes, although unknown to Australians, is a really good man. I wanted a fast bowler, and rather than bring one of the old cracks like Richardson or Bradley, who have gone stale, I chose Barnes, who is quite fresh to your batsmen, and should do well against them. He is not as fast, however, as either of the other trundlers mentioned. The first bowler I would have chosen for Australian wickets was A. E. Trott, with his great variety of deliveries, but I want to beat the Australians with Englishmen if possible, and not with Englishmen assisted by Australians. A great deal lias been said about Hirst and Rhodes, who were prevented from joining the team by the York county officials. Hirst is a better man now than ever he was, while his bowling lias shown wonderful improvement. Rhodes, however, is not the man for Australian wickets, and, although a good trundler, would probably have been treated with scant courtesy by Australian batsmen.