PLAYER-WRITERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1009, 27 June 1930, Page 9

PLAYER-WRITERS

ILL-FEELING CAUSED IN: SPORT BRITISH CRITIC’S COMMENT j It ought to be a condition in all { j sports that those who are actively { taking part in important competition ' fixtures should not write about them (says “Cover Point” in “London Sporting Life”). Much ill-feeling and much misunderstanding have been caused because there is not such a rule in force in this country. Some of the most injudicious statements that have appeared in print have been signed by prominent players, and much bitterness has been the outcome. The work of writing for the Press should be left to those who are professional journalists. Many writers on cricket have had considerable practical experience of the game, and because of that, and because of their professional training, their criticisms are, on merit, much more trustworthy guides than those of players who, because they are players, must, if they observe the courtesies and decencies of life, refrain , from putting on paper what they some- | times actually think. "We shall not have articles from any i of the Australian players appearing in j the Press. The manager alone is per- j mitted to communicate information to ! the Press. So that there shall be no ! j sort of favouritism, it is one of the ! ! conditions of the tour that he shall j j not accept any payment for informa- i j tion thus given, nor shall he even be j permitted to broadcast his views on j the tour, nor on any particular match, j I gather from the announcements that I read in various newspapers that we are to have articles from various English players. No cricketer who may be chosen to play for England will, however, be permitted to express any views over his own name on the test matches. Those newspapers that have made their arrangements with certain players on the assumption that they would be permitted to do so will have 1 a rude awakening. A SCANDAL It is, I suppose, no use entering a I protest against the growing practice of players lending their name to I articles they do not write, and many \ of which they do not read until they j see them in print. This kind of thing i i has become a scandal in sport. | It has grown to great dimensions in ! Association football, notwithstanding ; that the governing body of the game ; has a resolution in force that a player 1 must not comment either before or within a reasonable time after on any j game in which he is about to play or in which he has played. That is conI travelled every week, and players are | allowed to set the governing body at i defiance. j Many protests have been received i Iby “The Sporting Life” against the j growth of prominent players in lawn | tennis writing for the newspapers, j That is a matter for the Lawn Tennis I Association to deal with. Efforts have been made by some ol \ the prominent members of that asso- i ciation to place matters in this respect i on a more satisfactory footing, but the I opposition so far has been too strong, i Prominent amateurs in lawn tennis, ! and in other games, receive large payI ments from certain publications, and j they will continue to do so until the j governing bodies pass a rule that those j who receive payment for contributions j to the Press, merely because they are ! expert players, are ipso facto profes- | sionals in the sport on which they