A CRICKET "HORROR."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 289, 6 December 1928, Page 6

A CRICKET "HORROR."

Cricket is so near' to the heart of the average Australian that it is not surprising to read that the overwhelming defeat of Australia at Brisbane is regarded as a "horror." "Such apparition well might seem, delusion of a fevered dream." Fortune was all with the visitors, but before the very regrettable disablement of two of the Australians the Englishmen had definitely asserted supremacy. The Australians' innings yesterday was t/agic, but it must be borne in mind that the wicket was bad, a fact that gives Chapman's critics something to think about. Had Australia followed on and made a big score he might have found his side struggling desperately hard to reach a small total on such a wicket. The public has become so accustomed to heavy scoring that it has forgotten how many times test match sides have been dismissed for trifling totals in such conditions. In two most important respects the English team differs from the side led by Gilligan. It possesses a really first-class fast bowler, and the batting is even. There was some justification for the saying of 1924, that when Hobbs and Sutcliffe were out, the side was out. The prospect of England winning the rubber is bright, but those of our readers who follow cricket know how unsafe it is to prophesy. The Australian side that has just been overwhelmed might make 500 to-morrow against the same bowling. In the meantime, it is to be hoped that in both countries the result will be taken with the philosophic calm of true sportsmanship. In the comments of the English Press on this and earlier games there have been disturbing signs of hysteria. Indeed, the comment of the "Daily Express ,, on Chapman's decision about the follow-on was a disgraceful display of bad sportsmanship and equally bad manners.