FINE PLAYERS IGNORED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 891, 7 February 1930, Page 1

FINE PLAYERS IGNORED

Auckland and Third Test

SELECTORS’ WORK EXAMINED

Claims of R. W. Rowntree

AUCKLAND has accepted the third cricket test team as selected with little criticism, adverse or otherwise. With three men in the XI, she appears to have resigned herself to the fate meted out by the New Zealand selection committee.

That is the impression a Sun man sained from inquiries made in cricket circles in the City this morning. Three Aucklanders in the test team for a match to be played at Auckland is about as much as was expected by even the most optimistic. Aucklanders have given up hope long ago of ever seeing R. W. Rowntree, without a peer in the wicket-keeping world in the Dominion, in another New Zealand representative team. By the same token H. 1). Gillespie’s exclusion from the first eleven has caused little surprise. This is the fate of probably the finest out-fieldsman in New Zealand today, and at a time when Hugh Trumble, the famous old Australian international, has been trying to impress upon the Dominion the importance of fielding. There is, however, an expression of surprise at the inclusion of tf. M. MeGirr (Wellington) in the select band to wear the silver fern, in the absence of the Dunedin speed merchant, G. R. Dickinson. Many Aucklanders had expected that A. M. Matheson, who did so well during the recent Plunket Shield series, would have been given ft chance to win his spurs. SIGNIFICANT! The New Zealand teams for this series of tests have been selected by a committee of four appointed by the management committee of the New Zealand Cricket Council. Tha". committee consists of Messrs. W. S. Brice iWellington), N. C. Snedden (Auckland), H. B. Whitta (Canterbury) and F. Williams (Otag;o). One Aucklander. .T. E. Mills, was selected to play ;.n the first test in Christchurch, but he was unable to obtain the necessary leave. lie, however, played in the; sfecond test at Wellington, and another Aucklander, L. G. Weir, also won a place. It is significant that the team which went through two batting debacles in the Cathedral City, as disastrous as any in the Dominion’s cricket history, included no Aucklanders, and that it was an Aucklander who was one of the two men responsible fpr the no less remarkable recovery in the second trial of strength a* Wel I - . ington. C. F. W. Allcott:, who has since been able to obtain leave, will play in the third test, as th€> third Aucklander selected. McGirr, Wellington's newcomer to Dominion ranks this season. played against the M.C.C. men in their first match in New Zealand for the Wellington provincial representatives. In hat game his bowling was far from impressive, and yet he has been selected for the third test, obviously because the selectors consider a bowler with some pace essential. McGirr took one for 28 and two for 45 in the respective innings of the Wellington game. Mafheson has certainly been out of form lately on the sodden Auckland wickets, but several other men in the ream have done no better. And Mathe'«on has proved before that he has the knack of rising to the occasion with ■his bowling in big cricket.

. For Gillespie to have been included m the first eleven, either Weir (Auckland) or some Southern player with a reputation would have had to be left out. And there are several men with reputations in the New Zealand team w;ho have not performed at all consistently in the two tests already played or who. at the best, have shown only odd flashes of form. WICKET-KEEPER QUESTION Reverting- to the wicket-keeper question. The New Zealand Selection Committee has shown by its actions that it has definitely decided a question which first arose when the team which went Home in 1327 was selected. A younger man has been given preference over a .veteran who is almost universally recognised in New Zealand as by far the belter man. When James was selected as wicketkeeper, his ability as a batsman was weighed in his favour. This, in the face of the recognised principle of

test cricket that a wicket-keeper should be selected on his ability behind the sticks, and on that ability alone. That ability being equal, the better batsman would win the day. But that James is the equal of Hick Rowntree purely and simply as a wicket-keeper has never been admitted by even famous Australian and English international players who have seen both in action. In fact, W. A. Oldfield, recognised as the world’s best behind the stumps, said after seeing Rowntree in action that he himself had nothing on the Auckland veteran. And it can be assumed that Oldfield did not let his native modesty run away witli his mature judgment when expressing that opinion. Thus, even those who agreed with the selectors in playing James in the Southern tests thought that Rowntree would be given his due when the test at Auckland came along. Thus, at a time when James (although there never was any doubting his batting calibre) is sadly out of form, as he has scored only seven runs in three test innings this season the Wellingtonian retains his place in the team at the expense of a considerably better wicket-keeper. TWELFTH MAN.