CRICKET FINANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 37, 13 February 1934, Page 6

CRICKET FINANCE.

It is a pity that considerations of "gate" weigh so heavy in this country when tours of cricket teams from across the sea are being arranged, hut geographical factors are immovable. Unfortunately the cost of bringing a side even from Australia and sending it round the country is high, and the cricket authorities are obliged to watch their finance carefully. It is.because the team as finally chosen lacked drawing power that the New Zealand Cricket Council cancelled the tour at the last moment. Even m its final form the Australian side would have provided interesting matches, and it is. by no means certain that the full strength of this country would have defeated it. Though our cricket has improved since the days when our representative sides were regularly butchered to make a Ncav Zealand holiday, we are still much below the level of the Australian first eleven. A large section of the public, however, wishes to see famous players in action, and the Cricket Council is forced to study its wishes. If the Council could bring Bradman across, and guarantee that he would make a century in every match, its only financial worry would be the weather, and that it could insure against. The Council, howe\ or, *\\ as making itself responsible for a second eleven side, and at best it stood to lose £500. It cannot be blamed for declining to take a. larger risk, lor one tiling, the Council is committed to a tour of England two years hence, and must prepare lor it.