Dust-Stained Giants

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 892, 8 February 1930, Page 5

Dust-Stained Giants

IMPRESSIONS OF M.C.C. MEN

Sidelights on Dominion Tour

DUST-STAINED, overladen with baggage and joking cheerily as only Englishmen can, a band of giants stepped on to the Auckland platform from the Botorua express yesterday afternoon . . .! That was Auckland’s first glimpse of Harold Gilligan’s Marylebone Cricket Club men, and the great height and build of half a dozen or so of them was the outstanding impression they immediately gave.

Half an hour later in the lounge of the Hotel Cargen, divested of their luggage and the dust from New Zealand’s railways, they gave a more lasting impression; gentlemen all and sportsmen to the finger tips.

After tho formalities which such an occasion as the arrival of the eighth English cricket team ever to visit Auckland demanded, a Sun man made the acquaintance of most of the members of the team individually. But they woLild talk of anything but cricket. . . . Everywhere was met tho same reply: “Ask me anything, but don’t talk cricket.”

The reason. Well, when the team signed up each individual member gave a guarantee not to express any opinion to interviewers about contemporary cricket.

Not a word could they say about Australia’s chances of defeating England in the forthcoming test series. Not a word about cricket in New Zealand.

When another member of the team introduced rhe interviewer to the captain-manager of the side, Mr. A. M. IT. Gilligan. that busy man was delving into tho depths of a suitcase, and he soon made it known in his genial way that lie had been dodging pressmen ever since the tour began. He did not wish to express an opinion of the standard of the game in New Zealand till the tour ended. But the individLial members of the team talked enthusiastically of the pleasures of their trip through New Zealand, and gave many reminiscences of their connections with the game on tour and in the Homeland. CULTURED INDIAN Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji, better known to his team mates as “Duleep” and “Smithy,” revealed himself as a man of a quiet disposition, but none the less impressive personality. Slight of stature, but perfectly proportioned, and with a piercing Eastern eye, this scion of a princely house talked freely of the wonders of New Zealand. “Rotorua is wonderful.” he said. “I can’t describe it. I have seen nothing like it before.”

And in that ho expressed the general opinion of all the members of the team.

It was with obvious reluctance he talked of himself. Yes, he was

a Cambridge man. He had spent four years at the great University where his famous uncle went before him, and had graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

He has three brothers, all in India, They all play cricket a fair amount, for cricket must run in the family blood. He was born with a love of cricket, and has played the game ever since he can remember. “But nobody has worked harder than myself to improve my game,” he added.

He has been coached by many famous piayers from time to time, but one imagines that he himself gives a deal of credit for the success he has attained to the hints and advice of the one and only “Ranji.” BOWLEY HOME AGAIN

Showing only a slight trace of the illness which has dogged his footsteps since early in the tour, E. H. (Ted) Bowley, for the past three seasons professional player-coach to the Auckland Cricket Association, said he felt as though he was getting back home again, to see all the familiar faces of the cricketers and cricket officials with whom he was associated when in Auckland.

In his own modest way he talked of the misfortune which interrupted his play in Australia, when he was right at the top of his form. But Rotorua has worked wonders, and it would not be surprising if he is his own brilliant self again in Auckland. He would very much have liked to have got going on the wicket in Sydney, as it appeared to Him to be a batsman’s paradise. He has been playing cricket continuously (with the exception of sea voyages, of course) for three and ahalf years now. The three seasons before he came to Auckland he was coaching at Kimberley, South Africa. But he has not had enough cricket vet He could not have enougn. I never get tired o£ the game, he said. MUCH - TRAVELLED SCORER A man who must have seen as much test cricket in the last 20 years as anv living player or official is Mr. TV. Ferguson, official scorer to the -New South Wales Cricket Association, who is travelling with Giiligan’s team, lie is also official score.r to the Australian Board of Cricket Control, and in that capacity has travelled Home with every all-Australian team since 1909, and accompanied every ail-Bngland team through. Australia in that period also. . . , He has seen the last 50 test matches, and is going Home next month with Woodfull’s side. When the GovernorGeneral of New Zealand, General Sir Charles Fergusson, was introduced to the playe.rs at the second test, in Wellington, he greeted his namesake with the remark: “Are you another of the clan?” The scorer, it will be noted, spells his name with only one “s.” . M. 8. Nichols, the Englishmen’s speed merchant, had heard nothing officially of the suggestion that he might be taking up a coaching engagement with a New Zealand association next season. But he stated that, were an offer made him, he would most certainly consider it. He plays for Essex in the county competition, and has acted as one of the coaches a* the West London Indoor Cricket School.

Ho toured the W'est Indies last year with the team financed by Sir Julian Cahn and led by Lord Tennyson. The climate in the Indies, hotter than Australia even, was very trying on the members of the team.

Nichols considered that the wickets he had seen in New Zealand were very good. Motor-driving is his hobby, and he is never happier than when at the wheel all day. HOME AWAY FROM HOME

“A home away from home,” is how New Zealand has impressed E. W. Dawson, on© of the M.C.C.’s opening batsmen. The country resembled England in many respects, and the members of the team had been treated wonderfully well.

He has been on tours to South Africa and the West Indies, and is one of the four Cambridge men with the team. He was captain of cricket at the university in 1927.

E. T. Benson came down from Oxford last June, after three years there, and has thrown in his lot with Gloucestershire. He was even more impressed with Wairakei than Rotorua. G. F. Earle, the vice-captain of the M.C.C. team, is famed as the batsman with the longest “carry” ofi any player in England. He is a much-travelled man, who once went on a cricket tour to America.

When He was there, the game was dying out at its headquarters, Philadelphia, but he understood that there had since been efforts to revive it in New York.

Earle was once a soldie.r by profession, and he has seen service in prewar days in the Indian Army, stationed at Rawal Hindi. During the Great War he was in Flanders till his right knee gave out. He has had three operations on it since then, and recurring trouble interferes with his c-ricket considerably.