RETALIATION!

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 16, 20 January 1933, Page 7

RETALIATION!

McDONALD'S IDEA. He and Gregory Would Soon Stop the Body-Line. MARYLEBONE MEETS MONDAY. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 12 noon.) LONDON, January 19. The full committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club meets on Monday to discuss the Australian Board of Control's "body-line" protest. It is not definitely known whether a statement will be issued afterwards.

E. A. McDonald, the ex-Australian and Lancashire fast bowler, in a special interview, saicl: "Jack Gregory and I have b,?en hailed as the originators of body-line bowling, but we were straight 'up-an-downers,' and bowled to an ordinary field. The new fashion seems to be to intimidate or hurt batsmen. I am decidedly against body-line bowl-

"If I and Gregory were over there we would soon stop it by retaliation. lam convinced that without body-line bowling England could not beat the present Australian eleven. Set rules can never be made to be effective against body-line bowling." More Press Comment. The board's cablegram has brought the body-line controversy to a head. An astonishing variety of opinions is expressed in correspondence in the newspapers, and in interviews with prominent cricketers.

• "The Times" says:. "It is hard to conccive the possibility of the Marylebone Club placing a ban on any particular type of bowling. Probably the present difficult position would not have arisen but for the irresponsible chatter of elderly critics in the pavilion and the Press, and the craving in some quarters for sensational news stories." The "Daily Herald" says the Marylebone Club will meet immediately to draft a reply to the board's communication. It will ask for more detailed information concerning the alleged tactics and suggest a round-table talk with the English team. "However, it is certain," says the paper, "that Marylebone will take no steps to ban the leg-theory of bowling in the present Tests as that would be tantamount to a vote of censure on Jardino and tlio nifiii&gGrs of tho team. Xiig idea that England's tactics should be governed by Australia is preposterous. In the five Tests in England In 1921 E. A McDonald took 27 wickets lor 608 runs (average 24.74), and J. M. Gregory 19 for 552 (average 29.05). They thus shared 46 of the 60 English wickets which fell. Their figures for the tour in all first-class irjmefl were:—McDonald, 150 wickets, 2396 runs, average 15.97. Gregory: 120 wickets, 1984 runs, average 16.53. He also scored 1171 runs at an aveiage of 35.48.

"Wisden's" editor (the late Sydney H. Pardon) for 1922, commenting on the wonderful success of Warwick Armstrong s 1921 side, said: "Gregory and McDonald had fine bowling records for the whole tour, but their value to the side was far greater than their figures, good as they are, would suggest. I am sure that some of our batsmen, knowing they would have to face Gregory, were out before they went in. Since N. A. Knox (Surrey) bowled his fastest in 1906, I have never seen batsmen so obviously intimidated. McDonald struck one as being really the finer bowler of the two, but Gregory was by far the more alarming. Gregory was apt, when he pitched at all short, to get up dangerously high, but old cricketers were inclined to be sarcastic when they saw batsmen frightened by long hops. They perhaps remembered the Mr. R. D. Walker's dictum years ago, that batsmen who could not take care of themselves ought not to play cricket. Finding the effect of the rising ball so great Gregory would have been more than human if he had not now and then dropped one short with intention!"

"PACK HEADS IN ICE." SYDNEY PAPER SATIRICAL. SYDNEY,'January 10. The newspapers in Sydney and Melbourne, while they do not object to the formal protest sent by the Board of Control to the Marylebone Cricket Club about body-line bowling, are more or less critical of the board's contention concerning the likelihood of a disruption of the relations between Australia and England.

"The Sun" says: "The Marylebone Club might be forgiven, after reading the appalling suggestions of Imperial disruption, if it replied to the board with a request to pack its several heads in ice. However, it is quite obvious that the English cricket authorities will give friendly consideration to the protest, in "spite of the board's weakness in diplomacy. i The English captain, D. R. Jardine, declined to comment on the cablegram sent to the Marylebone Cricket Club by the Australian Board of Control. A statement issued by the English team says the members deplore the personal feeling that has been shown. They deny emphatically that there is dissension or disloyalty in the team and assure the public of Australia and England that they have a loyal captain, under whose leadership they hope to achieve an honourable victory in the Test series.