BATTING MASTERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 921, 14 March 1930, Page 7

BATTING MASTERS

Before it sturted the tour the M.C.C. team was regarded as the strongest side ever sent from Kngland to this country since the New Zealand Cricket Council was formed in IS9J. That opinion has been confirmed by the tour. The batting has been generally stronger and brighter than that of previous teams; the bowling has been better, on the whole, though the side did not have a slow bowler ns good as A. P. Freeman, who was in A. C. MacLaren’s side in 1923: and at some points the fielding lias been better. This was the second team from lingland to play more than two matches against New Zealand. The team which P. F. Warner captained in 1903 won both of its matches with New Zealand: the 1907 side, captained bv C. K. de Trafford after E. G. Wvnvard injured a leg, won one of its ‘-test” matches and lost one; A. IC. Mac.Laren’s team won two and drew one. On figures alone A. M. 11. Oilligan's team would appear to have a record in these matches not as good as that of MacLaren’s team, it having won one and drawn two—for the purpose of this comparison the third test, in which tlio weather permitted only one day’s play, may be excluded. However, the New Zealand team of the present day is much stronaer than MacLaren’s side met, and" it must be remembered that a New Zealander in MacLaren’s team, T. C. Lowry, played quite an important part in the defeats of his own country seven years ago. In appraising the batting of Gilligan s side it is necessary to distinguish the “freakishness of K. S. Duleepsinhji’s batting from that which has given a model for unpolished New Zealand players. Allowance must be made for the difference between Dnleepsinhji’s physical attributes and those of the average player. Duleepsfnhji sights the ball a fraction of a second sooner and keeps his sight of it a fraction of a second later than probably 999 out of a thousand players can. This extra vision of the G.ill does not come from any racial development of vision, for methodical investigation has exploded the old idea that coloured peoples have naturally i better vision than white people have. !< is simply a question of environmental development and adaptation. In Duleepsihhji’s case there may be some inherited keenness of sight—due originally to family environment—which has been further developed and adapted by his cricket. That latent “extra-vision” runs in the family is suggested by the fact that Duleepsinhji’s famous uncle, K. 8? Kanjitsinhji, also could see the ball Sooner and sight it later than the great majority of players. Allying suppleness of wrists and body and remarkable quickness of foot with his extra-developed sight, Duleepsinhji is able to play strokes in a manner impossible to players who have not these advantitious aids. He is so gifted that he is rather inclined to “trade” upon his sight and quickness of footwork, and to nake