THE COMING CRICKET MATCH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 30, 4 February 1905, Page 6

THE COMING CRICKET MATCH.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Will you kindly allow mc a little space to reply to "Middle Stump's" letter which appeared in your issue of the Ist inst. ? It is, of course, "well known that the local team selected to play against the Australian eleven have practically no chance of success, but surely they have not. merited the abusive and ill-timed remarks of "Middle Stump." The Auckland team will, I am sure, enter the field prepared to do their best, and will have the best wishes of all true lovers of the game. If it were not for them we should miss the opportunity of seeing the great Australian exponents of cricket. "Middle Stump" in his letter says, "Yet we have fifteen young men who, by some peculiar mental process, have persuaded themselves into the conviction that they can renlly play cricket." I don't know "Middle Stump," at least I hope I don't, but 1 wonder what peculiar mental process persuaded him to write a letter which will be generally condemned for its exaggerated and insulting tone. I recommend him to read your sub-leader whiah appeared in the same issue as his offensive and unsportsmanlike letter, but fear no mental process would make him understand it.—l am, etc., RICHARD R. MARTIN. Pukekohe. (To the Editor.) Sir, —I find myself unable to soar to the lofty height from which your correspondent "Middle Stump" looks down upon local attempts to play at cricket, lie appears forgetful of the fact that some of the best men in England came from the village greens, but no one there tries to sit ,on cricket because it is not all up to the Yorkshire standard. If the Australian team is willing to play our local men why should any one hero flout and sneer at our men for obliging them with a game, the winning or losing of which is not the be-all and endall of everything. I have not the advantage of being able to compare present-day men with thos« playing 25 years ago, but I have the pleasure of acquaintance with some of those who try to further interest in the game now. The style of criticism adopted by your correspondent is not calculated to help the men or the game, it seems to mc to be one long drawn out sneer. I should judge it to be quite unworthy of the writer if he really is friendly to the game at all. Everybody ought to know that help is wanted, not discouragement. I would fain be permitted to point out to him some of the disadvantages local cricketers labour under as compared with England. There is no wealthy leisured class here backing cricket up in almost every part of the country with influence and money, finding and paying professional exponents of the game. There are only one or two men in Auckland receiving payment for such services. Suitable grounds are few and far between; there are no richly-endowed universities or public schools, such as Eton and Harrow; the population here is comparatively small, communication difficult and slow. I can say from experience that it costs a young man two or three times as much to follow cricket here aa it does at Home. Another not unimportant thing is here the evenings are Bhort. It is light until nine and later in England; here dark at aeven —bad for practice. Your correspondent's comparison of cricket with football is not felicitous. Sometimes comparisons are odious. It is something to be able to say that cricket is free of the malevolent influence of the betting fraternity. It is played for the pure and simple love of the game. Your correspondent must admit that manners are improved on those of five and twenty years ago; it is hard to imagine a cricketer behaving himself in the disgraceful manner mentioned. I will admit that the usual performances are not brilliant, but, so long as they interest and please the average man, what is there to complain of? Moreover, if Tfouae men like to Voefe nie*> fm, th* otm

of their best girls, I am of opinion that they are obeying a natural law, that it ill becomes a middle-aged man, perhaps a grandfather, to sneer at. There is a world of sense in that tolerant old maxim, "Every dog has his day." Cricket will become decadent only when it becomes too exact and exacting; all game* suffer -svhen that stage is approached. 1 like to play a game of chess, but I object to it as a mathematical problem i of billiards the same. So I say, "Hurrah for mediocrity! Let us be good— but not too good." I have no desire to attain to that serene altitude from which "Middle Stump" looks down upon our imperfections, because if we were all up there we should be so good and so great that there would be nothing for a newspaper to record of us except perhaps our insipidity.—l am, etc., SILLY POINT.