CRICKET SUPREMACY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 31, 7 February 1933, Page 6

CRICKET SUPREMACY.

There will be widespread satisfaction among cricketers and followers of the game at Otago's victory in the Plunket Shield competition. This is only the second time that Otago has won the trophy in the long period since it was instituted, and there is a general feeling that the province has had less than its due share of the honour. This year's contests for the Shield have produced much interesting cricket, and comparisons have been inevitable between the brightness of play and the spirit informing the games and the dourness and bitterness that have characterised the test matches in-Australia. Provincial sides play keenly for the trophy, but the true spirit of the game is fostered. The rate of scoring has been substantially higher than that in the test matches, and perhaps the best feature in Otago's victory over Canterbury was the lighthearted Avay in which in the second innings, with victory in the balance, the home side went for the bowling. English batsmen, on the other hand, are too often cramped by the high occasion, and lose the name o,E action. Indeed, it may not be too much to say that a spectator may see better stroke play in a Plunket Shield game than in a match between England and Australia. If these contests of ours ever come to be taken with the desperate seriousness that has laid its blighting hand on the higher grade, then the Shield should be put away until sanity and humour return.