CRICKET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 92, 19 April 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

CRICKET.

The Warwickshire County Cricket Club benefit to wicket-keeper Lilley realised in all £850.

McLaren in the "Eeview of Reviews": "I hope that, from what I have written, people will not be led to suppose that I consider we have been so frightfully unlucky, and should by rights have won the rubber. I give the Australians all credit for beating- us, and I flatter myself that I can take a licking without whining and making- excuses as well as anybody. But I do think that the luck, such as it was, in the test matches, favoured our opponents a little more than it did us. This may sonnd a strong- thing- to say after winning- four tosses out of five —for there is no doubt that winning the

toss means a pretty big- advantage to a side^—but all the good luck in winning the toss was more than counterbalanced by the fact of Barnes' breakdown. It was a crushing blow to lose my one bowler in whom I centred all my hopes. If Ehodes had been with us this time we should have had an infinitely stronger side, and 1 am sorry not only for my own sake —though his inability to get away certainly upset my plans—but for his own. . This tour, with ite soft and crumbly wickets, would have been a- wonderful opportunity for him —it would be impossible, in fact, for him to strike a more favourable season for showing the Australian public what he can do. On a bad wicket Ehodes is simply unplayable."