CRICKET SELECTORS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 903, 21 February 1930, Page 8

CRICKET SELECTORS

WORRALL APPEALS FOR NATIONAL OUTLOOK CLAIMS FOR OLD PLAYERS As a general thing indignation meetings in sport serve no useful purpose (writes J. Worrall in the “Australasian”), but the meeting held in tho Collingwood Town Hall on February 5, gave enthusiasts an opportunity of protesting against the omission of J. Ryder from the Australian 15. Not because he led Australia in the last series of Tests, doing yeoman service for his country, but for tho reason that his exclusion was a transparent injustice, he being squeezed out between two opposing forces, whose interests were centred in State rights, as opposed to the legitimate claims of Australia. No team is worthy of tho name that does not include a scientific hitter* and one cannot altogether blame the citizens of Collingwood for giving vent to their feelings. The motion agreed to at the meeting, however, that selection committees in future should consist of a representative from each State, "with an independent chairman, is a crude one. Tho idea, I understand, emanated from Mr. E. E. Bean. and as he was one of the founders of the Board of Control, a member for many years, and a selector, it is only reasonable to assume that no man is better acquainted with the working and ideals of board. That such a process is considered necessary in the interests of true sport is the strongest indictment possible against the manner in which teams are chosen. Men should be chosen as selectors who know something about their job. All over Australia are old Test players of character, intelligence, and knowledge, with English experience, who know no boundaries, whose outlook, is national in its scope, who would make ideal selectors, and whose names would inspire confidence.