OUR CRICKETERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1932, Page 5

OUR CRICKETERS.

(To the Editor.)

Sir.—As a lover of the g ame of crickjet and one who has played it in different parts of the Empir e , and also had the privilege of witnessing the English, Australian and' African test teams in action for a number of years, kindly grant me space for a few remarks re the selection of Westland Sub-Association’s team to meet Canterbury at Hokitika next week. It is not my intention at this stagito criticise an y selected player, a§ that would be unfair and probably embarrass the players. Well, to begin, who are the selectors and how were they appointed (1 was unable to get this in* formation from six of the Hokitika first eleven). Ultimately I discovered their names, and found, that two had selelected themselves, and that the third member was down as first emergency, and that Club delegates bad received preferential treatment. GUbertian, what ?

Now, ,selectors’ duties are to select a team on present form, and not that of a score of yeans ago or on hearsay performances. Taking this as a basis, then the first man selected should be A. Adamson (H) with a competition average of just on 50 tuns. But according to the selectors he is only good enough for fourth emergency position, and of the two ■selected fiom the Hokitika Club one has a batting average of about 2, and the other is selected (riehtly) for hatting and bowling. Of the Ruatapu Club selected ( thTnk we could have dispensed with the wicket-keeper selected, and given Wilson first preference as he its an equally good bat and an excellent fast bowler, and the services of such a bowler will be required in maintaining a sustained attack in a two day match. Kanieri (with one man on the «elcleetion committee) has got more than its share of representation, and even at that I think the I,eft-hand bowler (Fleming) should have received preference over his brother. Ross has suffered and .should have had a second representative. (Sando). To sum up the merits of the selected team, it is my opinion, that barring the high school boys selected, the local high school XI i(to use a common vulgarism) “could hang their hides on the fence,’’ Yours, etc., H. W.