The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1899. THE ANGLO AUSTRALIAN CRICKET CAMPAIGN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 196, 19 August 1899, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1899. THE ANGLO AUSTRALIAN CRICKET CAMPAIGN.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the -wrong that needs resistance, Tor the future in the distance, And the good that wo can do.

Outside of those weightier matters which-^concern the welfare of the Empire, no series of events has attracted sor* much attention here and in the Old Country as the five test cricket matches between the representative teams of England and Australia. Not merely cricketers, but men and women who are (as a rule Gallios so far as cricket is concerned have -evinced the liveliest interest', in the progress of the campaig-n which has just been concluded.. The enthusiasm displayed surpasses anything of the land that has been witnessed on similar occasions previously.' Never has the meeting of an English eleven with an Australian -eleven on the field of cricket had so much importance attached to it. Doubtless, this increase of interest is in a measure the result of that growing devotion, to athletics,. which has been remarked on as a salient feature in Great Britain and the colonies at the present time. But we like to believe that it is also due to a more spiritual cause, and is another indication of that drawing closer of the bonds jpf Empire which has of late been-aicSong the happiest auguries for the future of the British race. That this is indeed the case, the extent of the attention bestowed on the test matches' is sufficient to prove. As we have already said, people who have no knowledge of the game of cricket, or very little knowledge, were keen readers of the cablegrams that announced the turns of fortune's wheel, nowhere more capricious than on the cricket field. They felt that when a Noble or a Hill went to the wickets they had in their keeping the honour of Australasia, and every ball that Jones, and his"cd^tnates hurled against the Eng-~ lishmen was winged with the good wishes iof the Antipodes. ,jAnd the Tjest "feature of ''air was "that while we were keenly anxious for victory and disliked the idea of defeat as much

as if the bats were bayonets, the balls bullets and our opponents for the time being the bitterest foes of our country, we were becoming every day greater friends with the men against whom our boys were fighting with all the earnestness of actual war. There was born out of the intense rivalry a deeper feeling of generous respect on both sides. The war has made us all prouder than ever of our kinship. The result of the campaign is regarded as unsatisfactory by cricketers; and we would all have liked to see a more decisive issue than has been possible under the arrangement that fixed three days as the limit for each test match. It is now very plain that under the conditions of modern cricket the time allowed is too short, and until the science and practice of bowling, has surpassed that of batting by a few points more draws must continue to be as common in three days' matches as they have been during the recent campaign. There is one advantage, however, to be found in the manner in which the series of test matches have ended. It leaves both sides free to speculate on what they might have accomplished, and we are not sure that that freedom will not be productive of a greater satisfaction generally than would have been the case had fortune awarded the palm of victory to one or the other side. Experts in cricket will perhaps pretend to be able to play out in theory the games which in practice were cut short before the finish, and to tell us precisely what the actual result of the campaign would have been had every match been concluded. But we can always oppose to these so-called certainties of the experts "the glorious uncertainty" of the game, and whether we are Englishmen or colonials persuade ourselves that the absolute conclusion would have been one to our own liking. The indefinitness that attaches to the issue is also likely to whet desire on both sides of the world for a renewal of the struggle just as much as if one or the other side had been incontestably defeated. Each side is certain to claim for itself the benefit of the doubt. The Englishmen, while admitting that the honours of the day are with Australia, contend that if the unfinished matches had been played out England would have scored the majority of wins. There is no question that a careful analysis of the matches affords good ground for that assumption, and it is most. natuml that- it should be made. On the other hand, we scarcely expect that that view of the case, however well F.upported.willgainpopular currency here. Hoyiop, here and at Home there will cortiiiue to be a spirit of lively anticipation with re-p-ard to the npxt great Anjrlo-Austrn-lian cricket contest, and that spirit, while stimulatinsr the love of cricket, will certainly do soinethinpf to intensify thf> sense of close relationship }Wwr?n the Mother Country and her colonies.