LIKE SERFS AND SLAVES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 545, 24 December 1928, Page 12

LIKE SERFS AND SLAVES

BOWLERS HUMILIATED, SAYS ENGLISH CRITIC (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) LONDON, Sunday. The’ special cricket critic of the "Observer” says: “In cricket, as elsewhere, we reap what we sow. For many years it seemed to us in England that the last person considered in Australia was the bowler. Matches of undetermined length, eight-ball over?, artificially prepared wickets, carefully protected from the rain, these left the bowler like a slave chained to a galley. “The root of the trouble with Aus-’ traliarl cricket is the glorification of the batsmen for the attraction of the spectator, and the humiliation of the bowler to serfdom. Possibly the Australian associations have not thought out the effects, but they cannot longer be blind to them. “They could not expect the events of the years 1919-25 always to recur. The last team sent to England was manifestly deficient in bowling. Nothing shows the barrenness of the bowling more than the reliance on Blackie and Ironmonger, who are both beyond middle-age. “Australia’s primary duty is to search out young and competent bowlors and give them experience now, even if they are below the previous Australian standard. “The strength of Chapman’s company rests on after-war players. Sutcliffe, Hammond, Jardine, Chapman Larwood, Duckworth and even Tate’ are largely after-war players. The average age of these seven men is over 38 years. Larwood pre-eminently represents the triumph of youth “To every cricketing country a lean period comes. England at the present moment has great batsmen and bowlers, a successor to Strudwick, alertness m the field, and a gallant leader who is never depressed or afraid, and is not inclined to talk too much.’*