DIMMED CRICKET.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 224, 21 September 1935, Page 12

DIMMED CRICKET.

EVERYTHING WRONG. WHY FOOTBALL IS POPULAR. WHAT ENGLAND IS SAYING. (■Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON, August 31. Cricket in England is under a cloud. The season is just ending hero, while Australia and New Zealand are pieparing for theirs. It has been a had season—criticism and discontent. The South Africans began in an aura of favourable comment and arc fading out in a cloud of criticism. The selectors arc roundly abused —everything is wrong with English cricket. This view of an expert on a match at Eastbourne this week shows the viewß being held here: —'There were ten minutes of cricket at Eastbourne, during which time Surrey scored 15 runs off four overs. And there were hours of silly, out-of-date cricket during which time both teams and their several hundred would-be spectators had nothing to do but loaf about. Only the band played. Just because the pitch, following an early morning downpour, was muddy the game was given up. "Yet half a dozen yards from this muddy pitch there was a wicket on which cricket could perfectly well have gone on. There was nothing wrong with the outfield and hardly enough rain fell to send a fastidious cat to cover. It should have been permissible to move the match on to another pitch. There should bo an instruction to umpires and county captains to do this whenever possible. Or else cricket should be played on matting, which would make it largely independent of weather. This would bo fair to both sides and help bowlers more than they are helped on a good many turf wickets. "Cricket is definitely a public entertainment dependent on public interest and support for its continuance, and it is ridiculous that a small strip of wet turf should put a stop to it when all around people are—and were here to-day —playing bowls, lawn tennis and croquet. Cricket cannot afford to be a hundred years behind the times, as it is in some respects. Tt has far too much up-to-date competition.