CRICKET MATTERS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12507, 21 May 1906, Page 6

CRICKET MATTERS.

Tho proposals rvK&rding the visit of an English cricket team to thif> colony next summer, -which tlio N<\v Zealand Cricket Council decided on Friday to place before the Melbourne Cricket Club, offer

to lovers of tho gam© a welcome pros-

pect of seeing some excellent cricket. TJtoro is no doubt that if the Council could secure for £1500 a fifty days , tour of New ZeaJand by a team representing tho cream of English cricket, it ivoald bo a good stroke of business. No considerable financial profits would be looked far, but the benefit to the game -which would result from stimulating the interest cf tlie public and -widening the experience of local players would bo very large. The recent tour of tho Melbourne team showed clearly that before Now Zealand cricket can hepe to take much higher nuik than at pr«v;ent the plnyens must gain thp confidence which only coniee from experience—the experience of meeting better men than themselves. The eiigfjeftticni that one of the tc-.-t matches between England and Australia should be played here is dazzling, and if it were accepted by tln> M.C.C. the match would draw Mich an attendance as would te-ct the holding capacity of Lancaster Park to it.s limits. Major Wardill appears, by the w:-y, to fe quite confident that the Melbourne. .Cricket Club will bring out au Englsh team. Tho "Australasian," however, expresses the opinion that the

visit will not take place, possibly oiti .account of the existing crisis in Australian cricket affairs. Tho matter would largely depend upon the point of view from which tTio Marylcbone Cricket Club—tlL-_* governing body of the sport at Home—regarded the dispute. If it wo if? convinced that tho Board of Control represented the. majority of Australian cricketers it might refwse to

countenanc , ? any team coming out under tho awpiccs of the Melbourne Club, in which case, no first-rank players would make the trip. It must bo hoped, therefore, that the present trouble will be settled amicably. Wo do not quite understand Mr Raphael's suggestion that "tho . Government might help (in " tho matter of the test match) as they " helped tho New Zealand Rugby " Union." Tho proposal that application fihoukl bo made to the Government for .ass istanoo towards sending the football 'team Home was so thoroughly scouted by most of the Unions that it died in itw birth. The only help tho Government gave was to bring the team back througu America, and that was a voluntary recognition on Mr Seddon's part of the •good work done by the players, and the admirable manner in which their magnificent record of victories had "■— vertised the colony. There is far too strong a tendency in New Zealand to run to the Government for help in all sorts of enterprises. It hoe been encouraged, we admit, by tho Premier's fondness for enacting the role of an earthly Providence, but it is none- tho lass to bo deprecated, and in matters concerning sports it should be strongly repressed. If we cannot afford to pay for our amusements we ought to do without >them. But if an Englislh teamdoes conio out, and there is any possibility of the Cricket Covincil being able to arrange for one of tho test matches to bo played here, every cricketer and cricket-lover must hope that they will spare no effort to bring it about. It ■would give a tremendous fillip to the game, and would give tho keenest pleasure to many thousands who can never hope to sao a test match under

any other circumstances,