THE DECIDING TEST.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 36, 26 February 1937, Page 4

THE DECIDING TEST.

For the next few day» there will be a battle in actual progress that will command a very great deal more of popular attentiou than any anned conflict posaibly looming in the distance. To-day is to be opened ihe fifth and last of the present tour's series of ' ' test ' ' matchse between English and Ausralian cricketers. Upon its result depends, not certainly the fate of nations^ but the possession for a time of the CQvetcd * ashte.' 1 This does not seem to be an issue of any very real importance, but it is one that will stir the hearts of many thousanda on both sides of the world and many will, metaphorically at least, be praying to the gods for conditions that will favour one side or the other. All lovers of the game for the game's sake and all it should implj will, however, hope that the Providence that rules the Australian ikies will keep them clear and so make for the fair trial of skiU and fitneas that real ericket should be, At time of writing we have no word even of the outcome of the fateful toss of the coin that often has so much to do with the eventusl outcome. Under the most favourable conditions cricket is one of the trickiest oi games, for even the best of batsmea cannot guess when he is going to get the ball that will decide his fate and perhaps that of "his side. Still, the game is never losfc until it is won, and we may have more than one thrill during the ctiUrse of that beginning to-day. "What we may most wish is a fair field and no favour, and may the best side win.