CRICKET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 779, 23 March 1905, Page 3

CRICKET.

——♦—— THE DECADENCE OF NEW ZEALAND CRICKET. Speaking of the means to be adopted to improve cricket in this colony, Mr F. Wilding, the old-time Christchurch player, said that to get first-rate batting and bowling t-hs game must bo played under the best possible conditions. He fully agreed with Mr Noble's remarks as to the necessity for good pitches, and hoiked that the Cricket Association would get sufticieient Bulli soil to lay down a few practice pitches on both grounds, and suggested that an, area of, say„ 25yds by 40yds should be laid down in the centre of Lamcaster Parle. In this respect supporter* at the game should, show their interest in . it by assisting the Association, an* for his part he would be happy to help in the event of retired crickciers and the public doing sof He mentioned that oiw or two pilches had been laid at the Tftrk with Bulli soil some years ago, with satisfactory results, but the oepcritnent was on a small scale. It would certainly be better to spend money in this direction than by employing coaches 1 , lie believed in coaches for schoolboys, but they were useless to players whose stylo was formed. He did not think that the older players had' derived the slightest benefit from the professionals and coaches in past years. Professional bowlers—men we were not able to afford—could not do much for local cricketi. If professional bowlers were needed, he would advise that they should Ire raised from amongst otir boys who showed promise. Excellence in cricket depends on tin amount of brains and money expended and the number of matches engaged in where the game is played in a really strenuous maimer. The quality of match practice could be increased by curtailing the number of teams in the senior cup competition, and, above all, by doing away with the retrograde step of allowing thirteens to play in that competition, the result of which was the matches created no interest whatever. The more elevens there were in such a competition in a community like ours the lower the standard of play would becom'e, because the tendency was for the 'good players to play down to the level of the inferior players. He did not think that cricket had gone back, and he was no believer in the idea that the play in the early days*—away l>ack in the seventies—was superior to that of the present day. But. whilst the standard of cricket hod been enormously raised in all centres in Australia, it bad almost stood still in New Zealand.—Press.