THE WOMEN'S CRICKET TEST

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21400, 16 February 1935, Page 9

THE WOMEN'S CRICKET TEST

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MESS. Sir,—For the sake of the game locally, also from the spectators' point of view, it is hoped that the English women's cricket team does not adopt the same tactics in the test as were employed in the Canterbury and Otago matches. In each case the English captain won the toss and stopped at the wickets sufficiently long to spoil all interest in the game. The idea of "playing safe" by amassing a large number of runs and leaving the local team no chance of making them in the time, also the idea of declaring a short time before the tea adjournment, which actually happened in each of the matches mentioned, may be called "shrewd generalship," but is hardly good sportsmanship. If the present tour is an educational one, I am afraid it has not served its purpose, but rather the reverse, for it seems to me the idea of the English team is to beat the local teams by as large a margin as possible, which is not only discouraging and humiliating, but is going to make the local players ask themselves "Whatls the use?"— Yours, etc., OLD CRICKETER. February 15, 1935.