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Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1937, Page 14

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N.Z.'S UNIQUE POSITION. ONLY AMATEUR COUNTRY. HARD TO GET ANY MORE " FOREIGN » TEAMS HERE. (By 'JVW'Krnpll. — Press Association ) CHRISTCHI'RCH, Thursday. ''New Zealand. really the only amateur cricketing country extant, is of no ini|Hirtance in the cricketing world at present, and we have to do everything liv negotiating. It is not the same position as in the Rugby world, where NewZealand can hold her own with any other country." said Mr. A. T. Donnelly, chairman of the management committee of the New Zealand Cricket Council, at the biennial conference of delegates to-day. "The game has become so commercialised lhatait looks as if it will i>e very hard to get another English team to the Dominion, and next to impossible to get an Australian side —costs are so high and receipts are very low,'' Mr. Donnelly continued. "We must try, however, to get more teams away to England and Australia, as batting in New Zealand has improved out of .ill knowledge since the tours of England have been begun. "In England a Dominion side can give any county side a very good game, but ii» Australia the position is different, where States such as New South Wales and Victoria are as strong as half of England."' Mr. Donnelly said the cost of the first tour to Englaiul was alxut £4.">iH) and the tour in Mi.'tl had cost JLMIHi more than had been received. The loss on the present tour, if the team had come straight hack instead of going to Australia. would have been less than £l*M)0. and it all depended on whether the

"•rates" wore j>ood in Australia for tlie council to break even. They were losses, lie said. lillt the council could stand them every six or seven years. They wanted to get an Australian team to New Zealand every two or three years in February and March after the Sheffield' Shield panics were finished.

Referring to the present touring team Mr. Donnelly said the council would be

very short of funds for some time as the result of the loss on the English tour. "In fact', I think the guarantors of the tour will have to be asked to pay up some of their guairtiitoc to allow the council to carry 011," he added.

No Fifth P.S. District. The proposal for a fifth Plunket Shield team consisting of the minor associations in the Wellington I'imince was rejected by the biennial confereiire of delegate*, to the New Zealand Cricket Council to-day. The matter was brought up in a remit from the Manawatn Cricket Association. Although the conference voted on the remit and it was lost by 18 votes to ft. it will lie brought forward at the annual meeting of the council to-morrow evening. Actually six delegates voted against the remit and nine for it. but among the six in opposition were the four tes from the major associations, who were each entitled to four votes. This swaved the voting, with the result that the remit was lost. A remit from Manawatu with the idea of hastening the game was carried in an amended form. It concerned the time taken by a batsman to reach the create after the dismissal of the previous batsman, and as carried it re«d: 'That an incoming batsman not at the crease within two minutes of the fall of the last wicket shall, without an appeal, forfeit his wicket, unless both umpire* "ball otherwise direct." A reouesf for selectors from the minor ions. one to rei»re«ent. each island oil future New Zealand selection committees, contained in a remit from the Wairarapa Association. was lost without any votes being recorded in its favour.