CRICKET DRAMA: FOURTH ACT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1937, Page 8

CRICKET DRAMA: FOURTH ACT

It is assumed that crickot ami similar games, when played honestly, are ruled by chance rather than by destiny; but it would certainly appear that destiny bad intervened to make the 1936-37 Test series uniquely surprising, and to bring it at the close of the fourth match to a climax of balance and expectancy. This achievement has financial as well a*> other implications; and English county cricket treasurers at any rate will not be disappointed to hear that a Test series can still work up the publio to the highest pitch of excitement. Each team to some extent — but Australia to a greater extent — revolves round one mighty man with triple qualifications. Bradman, super-batsman, super-fieldsman, and now captain, lias contributed two double centuries in two successive

Tests ns an answer to the suggestion that captaincy has tamed his bat. Hammond, the other mighty man, was not in this match a centurygetter; but he look seven wickets for

87 runs, and so still stands as batsman, bowler, and fieldsman of a calibre rarely approached. Of the concluding stages of the Adelaide Test, it can be said that Fleetwood-. Smith completed what Bradman began—a triumph for the selectors as well as the bowler. As to Bradman, Hobbs's tribute in yesterday's issue leaves little unsaid. The Tcsl position is now exhilarating both for those intense persons who regard Hammond as Public Enemy No. X (or who, if fanatically British, give Bradmnn that honour) and for the broader sportsman who can hail with equal admiration a great strike by either of the giants.