Cricket.

Southland Times, Issue 18822, 15 May 1920, Page 9

Cricket.

(By ‘‘Short Leg.”)

It is proposed by the Management Commute'. 1 of the Now Zealand Cricket Council iln.r the present system of playing matches 'or the Hunkt ! Shield should be altered by .a.: ml Anting a fixed annual competition for the present method of challenges. Under

tho proposed system, the association winning the greatest number of matches in the fixed competition would hold the trophy for that year. If two teams or more tied in number of matches won, the deciding factor would be tho differences between tha team batting and bowling averages. The method pqroposed is similar to that used in Australia m the Sheffield Shield competition. The proposal was before the Management Committee of the Canterbury Cricket Association recently. There could be no doubt that In the past, stated a letter from the Management Committee of the New Zealand Cricket Council, that tho keen competition for possession of the Plunket Shield had been the means of stimulating great interest-, but it had been apparent that other interprovincial matches had, to some extent, suffered in comparison. The suggested new Rule 3 read: — That the Plunket Shield be held by the team winning the greatest number of matches in a competition for the shield. That, in the event of an equal number of wins, the competition bo decided on the rules governing the Sheffield Shield Competition. That tho competition bo confined to the Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago associations. That each team play every other team each season. That the competition be inaugurated by all competing teams, excepting Otago, travelling south during the 1920-1921 season, and, in the following season, all competing teams, excepting Aucldand, travelling north. The amendments were approved. The committee, however, decided that it could not agree to the proposed alteration to Rule 12 which suggested that tho net takings at the matches be divided ns follows: —Sixty per cent, to bo retained by the local association ; 30 per cent, to be retained by the visiting association; and 10 per cent, by the New Zealand Cricket Association. With frequent visits of teams from Australia, tho funds of the different associations should, of course, soon benefit, and, with three home interprovincial matches every two years, together with, say, Australian teams visiting New Zealand also every two years, a fair amount of revenue could be counted upon. It had always been in the minds of tho members of the council one day to place the Plunket. Shield matches on the same basis as those which decided the Sheffield Shield in Australia, but it was just a question of whether they were far enough advanced to introduce the system at the present time.