ARE WE PLAYING CRICKET?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 170, 4 January 1915, Page 2

ARE WE PLAYING CRICKET?

I_ (To the Editor, | Sir—His Majesty King George is rcl' ported to have remarked after hearing '*the account of German methods of .'fighting from a wounded Tommy, "Thev >' don't play cricket." The appropriatei.'ncss of this comment is perhaps not appreciated by many New Zealanders, and I we have not to look far for the reaI son. Cricket, which is rightly called, l' "the King of Games," and is the £;reat national British pastime, does not (iour- ]■ ish here nor stir the public interest as l it should, and its value in improving l' the physique and moral of our race is l' not realized. Games are but modified I' forms of war, and cricket, with its strict ! rules, and in it unwritten codes of honj' or, is far above any other in doing •'what games should do, viz., making better men and soldiers of us. Football we have. It is a great game. Much ,we owe to it, but we want cricket too. Football is of necessity a winter game, ,a fine strenuous one for the young and lusty, but we have a long summer. \ r ot one footballer out of fifteen is a cricketer. 'Why? 'Because the majority of . them have never had the chance of learning the game. Cricket must be learnt when .young, or else proficiency is rarely attainted. Every primary school should be found with bats and balls, and every Education Boajd should have a professional to teach. The youth of New Zealand is well fed and strong, but it is starving for cricket. This statement will appear to many as the raving of an enthusiast, but those who play ■ cricket and know what cricket means, will recognise its truth. How often does one hear the condemnation of drinkinggambling, horse-rocing, etc. Get cricket | really going, and it will help to 1 combat these evils. Youth, aye, and | grown men must have some game, some- | tiling beside the every day kind of wage-earning, and nothing fills that want like cricket. It is "the" game. Few .footballers play much after 30, but the cricketers has practically no age limit. ■Several of our Taranaki clergymen are .fine exponents of the game and to them and otlier enthusiasts I appeal to take this in hand. I would like to see a Dominion Cricket League formed with j thousands of members, its object being ] to foster and nurse poor little New Zea- j land cricket until it becomes a strong and powerful factor in the national life, i In conclusion, I say to you cricketers, j if you do not rouse up and do something j to help in this direction, you "arc? not t phiying cricket," you're merely cricket- j ing,—l am, etc., j IKIRAT. Tariki, -Tan. 2, 1015.