N.Z. TOURING TEAM

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25769, 2 April 1949, Page 8

N.Z. TOURING TEAM

CRICKET

SHIP TO BERTH TODAY GUARDED COMMENT ON SIDE’S PROSPECTS (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 1. The New Zealand cricket team will arrive at Southampton in the Dominion Monarch on April 2. The team’s headquarters in London will be the Park Lane Hotel, where the manager (Mr J. A. Phillipps) will hold a press conference on the morning of April 4 to meet British cricket writers. A favourable impression has already been made by the team on at least one cricket writer, Crawford White, of the “News Chronicle,” who joined the Dominion Monarch at Durban and is returning to England in her. In a message to his newspaper, he says: “The likeable lads will be popular both on and off the field in England this summer.” He also says: “My close contact with the New Zealand team leaves a marked impression that they are the most cricket conscious and least cash conscious touring side I’ve seen for years. I’ve never heard a word of complaint about their modest allowance of £1 a day, which gives them a little more than £2OO for their seven months' adventure, as compared with the Australians’ £9OO and the South Africans’ £6OO for the same tour. All they talk and think about, eagerly and constructively, is the task ahead and theii immediate responsibility of keeping fit for it.”

“Through their long voyage, the spacious games deck has been used to the limit for steady training and strenuous catching practice, and there have been irregular team talks on English conditions by W. A. Hadlee, W. M. Wallace, and J. A. Cowie, who were all on the 1937 tour.” White says: “Hadlee, the captain, wisely makes no rash predictions. He knows the power which still lies in English cricket, but he seems quietly confident that his side, well-balanced in batting and with bowling of pace and left and right hand spin, will play attractively and give a good account of itself.” White says that if B. Sutcliffe, Scott, Hadlee, Wallace, and Donnelly can find their normal form they would be an impressive front line against any side. The bowling, he says, will be headed by Cowie, and much is expected from J. A. Hayes, who is faster than Warwickshire's Pritchard, which means considerably faster than anybody now in English cricket. The friendly New Zealanders were determined to play on English rations, but in order to repay in the best possible way whatever hospitality they receive, each had a crate of tinned meats on which to draw.” In a double column article, the "Manchester Guardian” gives a short note about each player. “Unlikely to be Best Side” “This.” the Manchester Guardian” continues, “is unlikely to be the best side that New Zealand has sent to this country, for it is weak in both its spin and pace attack, but many New Zealand critics think that its batting is the strongest in its history. Thesfe judgments remain to be proved.” Apart from Hadlee, Wallace, Scott and Sutcliffe, it continues, the batsmen have made their reputations against bowling “which does not seem obviously of a proper test match standard." The bowlers, except Cowie and Burke, it regards as young in experience, “particularly G. F. Cresswell, of whom much is expected.” It also observes that in spite of the team’s inexperience, it is the oldest New Zealand side to visit England.

Warwick Braithwaite, the New Zealand conductor at Covent Garden, and a friend of Hadlee, hopes that if circumstances permit, a night at the opera will be arranged for the team soon after its arrival.