MANAGER SUMS UP

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27309, 27 March 1954, Page 9

MANAGER SUMS UP

“ WITHIN AN ACE OF SUCCESS ”

LOSS OF RABONE A SEVERE BLOW'

“Within an ace of becoming a good team,” was the summing up of the manager (Mr J. L. Kerr) of the standard reached by the New Zealand cricket team, in an interview after the arrival of the team at the Christchurch airport yesterday. Mr Kerr’s comment applied to the team as it had developed by the eve of the fourth test in South Africa. It was at this stage of that the captain, G. O. Rabone, injured a foot and was unable to play again in South Africa or Australia. Rabone had “found his feet” as an opening batsman—and the dearth of reliable opening batsmen had been one of the team’s big problems—he was becoming a useful bowler and, what was of more importance still, he was welding the team into an effective combination.

But for the loss of Rabone at this critical period, in Mr Kerr’s view, the final' score of 4-nil in the test rubber might have been different. The New Zealanders would not have been flattered by a win in at least one test. “Overseas tours such as the visit to South Africa give us the best chance of developing our cricketers, because at home we rather suffer from a lack of first-class cricket,” said Mr Kerr. “There is definitely something to be gained frpm such tours. Our playing record was not perhaps quite as good as we hoped it might be, but our team made a very good impression on the South African public and officials,” said Mr Kerr.

“The team did its country every credit and was a particularly popular side. The arrangements for the tour, in most respects, could not have been improved. “It was unfortunate that the team arrived at Cdpe Town so near the beginning of the tour, for it was essential to arrive in sufficient time to prepare. It was not at all easy to recover from an indifferent start.” Two Lessons The South African tour had taught New Zealand cricket at least two lessons. The tour had emphasised the need to concentrate, and the value of having sufficient confidence in one’s own ability to succeed. The South African test team had had both those attributes in rather better measure than New Zealand. A team of 14 players had proved ample for the tour, Mr Kerr said. Although the figures were not available, it seemed quite clear that the South African Cricket Association would make a handsome profit from the tour.

Mr Kerr would not commit himself about the possibility of South Africa sending a team to New Zealand in the 1957-58 season. The proposal had been made, but it hack yet to be fully examined by the New Zealand Cricket Council.

Mr Kerr said B. Sutcliffe, the vicecaptain, had had a difficult task in trying to rebuild a team after the loss of its captain and one of its opening batsmen. “Sutcliffe deserves much of the credit for the team’s very creditable performances in Australia,” he said.

Conditions in Australia proved much more to the liking of the New Zealanders than those in South Africa. On the inland grounds, particularly, of South Africa, the players had to master conditions which, in his view, favoured the seam bowlers. Carrying rather more grass than most New Zealand wickets, the wickets in the high veldt were rather too slow to suit spinners, but responded well to seam bowling. Asked whether he thought J. G. Leggat (who joined the team in Australia) would have been worth a place in the team in South Africa, Mr Kerr said he certainly would have been if he could have achieved the success he had in Australia. But the playing conditions in many of the matches in South Africa were so different from those in Australia or New Zealand that it was difficult to say whether Leggat would have achieved such success.

The team had been particularly fortunate in its relations with the press in South Africa, said Mr Kerr. Three South African journalists who travelled with the team ♦ ‘treated us very kindly” and the team got a good press wherever it went. Mr Kerr added that the New Zealand Press Association could not have made a better choice of its special correspondent to cover the tour than Mr R. T. Brittenden, “who ably upheld the reputation of New Zealand journalists.”