CRICKET.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 124, 7 March 1936, Page 2

CRICKET.

THE PLUNKET SHIELD CONTESTS PLEA FOR COUNTRY PLAYERS. NEW PLYMONTH. Mar. 6. The Taranaki Cricket Association, at a meeting, last night, passed a resolution that all possible avenues he canvassed with a view to providing promising players with the opportunity of gaining experience in bigger cricket, and in this respect a proposal was put forward that a. fifth Plunket Shield district ho formed from. the present minor associations. In fairness to country players the fifth Shield team should be formed, said Mr T. H. Bates, who remarked that the question had been brought before the New Zealand Council, The chief consideration was expense. PRUNING THE GAME. ACCORDING TO THE CASH. A few Leicester sportsmen have given £SOOO to the Leicester Cricket Club to help it out of financial difficulties. In other words, £SOOO has been given to keep a few charming but intensely dull cricketers in work for another five years, writes Arthur Mailey. After that, the hat will go around again, or possibly the club will cease to function. This is a bad state of affairs, but it ils not altogether hopeless. The trouble with English county

cricket is that the professional players’ hill is too big for the gate receipts. In the Leicestershire case there is not one interesting cricketer, not one drawcard, and the result is inevitable. Even in Australia, where no professionals are employed, we find it difficult to carry on without Test matches and Bradman. Consequently it is easy to understand why a club like, say St. George, or Gordon, which after all draws as many people on Saturday as some of the English county clubs would' not be able to pay the wages of nine or ten professionals. In some cases English clubs run two grounds. Essex, a club just struggling for existence, has Leyton ground and one at Chelmsford to look after. English county clubs might be compelled to consider the advisabilty of encouraging more amateurs—in other words, cheap labour. Amateurs nowadays cannot spare six days a week for cricket. It is an interesting fact that many Sydney grade clubs are depending on a subsidy received from the New South Wales Cricket Association, which in turn receives it mainly from Test matches.