HIGHLY ARTIFICIAL WICKETS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 20, 3 November 1938, Page 4

HIGHLY ARTIFICIAL WICKETS.

It is a little surprising that none of the many cricket critics who have been lamenting the new records has concentrated on the essential cause of the change in the game, writes Sir W. Beach Thomas. Much batting may be unenterprising and much bowling may bo unoriginal; but the successful dullness of the batsmen and the inefficiency of the bowler in international gardes arc produced by the highly artificial manufacture of the wicket. The soil is at the root of the matter, as in many other things. A level patch of grass can be so treated with marl and other substances and so perfectly rolled over a long period that it becomes a sort of concrete slab, on which the ball keeps a uniform height and refuses to turn. Kvon heavy rain will not percolate. Wickets fall only when batsmen get themselves • out by excess of enterprise or want of common skill. The chemical and mechanical treatment of the game, though (on the other hand) it is a terribly difficult business to prevent the grass (especially in London) from deteriorating through the necessarily regular use of the mowing machine.