FIELDING BY BATSMEN

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27877, 27 January 1956, Page 12

FIELDING BY BATSMEN

W. A. HADLEE REPLIES TO CORRESPONDENT

ACTION IN MATCH LAST SATURDAY "I can see no reason why members of a cricket team which is batting should ?°L re } ur 1 n a - ball which is ‘dead’ to the of play. At Lords and other prominent cricket grounds, spectators constantly • W. A. Hadlee, acting-captain of the Old Boys senior cricket team, yes_?yhen a letter to the editor of The Press” from a correspondent. Long On.” was referred to him. The correspondent said: “In your report pf the Old Boys-Sydenhani match it would appear that Old Boys were set an almost impossible task in scoring 103 runs in 23 minutes to win. This was accomplished by W. A. Hadlee posting his own team members round the boundary to retrieve the ball and thus save valuable time. Is that cricket? Would the Canterbury captain, in the same position, do the same thing at Lancaster Park against the West Indies?”

“In the match last Saturday some of the members of my team took up spectator positions outside the field of play,” said Mr Hadlee. “It must be said that there were no games being played on either the No. 2 or No. 3 wickets at the oval, where normally adjoining fieldsmen return balls hit across the No. 1 boundary. As games on these wickets had finished, a ball hit across the No .1 boundary would have travelled on fast outfields to or beyond the No. 3 wicket, resulting in the batting side suffering in direct relation to the distance the ball was hit.

“Moreover, the batting team on this occasion had to take the incidental • risks when the ball was lost temporarily in • hedge at one corner of the ground,” he said.

There was plenty of precedent for members of the batting side taking up spectator positions, said Mr Hadlee, and it provided possibly one of the answers for those who demanded brighter cricket.

“The Canterbury captain would not do the same thing against the West Indies for the very good reason that the Lancaster Park boundary is surrounded by a picket fence. A boundary hit for four at Lancaster Park is retrieved promptly from the fence. One does not have to guard against the ball travelling as far as Wilson’s road or on to the south or west ground at the park,” said Mr Hadlee. "If there was a boundary line within the picket fence, spectators would help retrieve the ball, which would be comparable with the action taken by players •nd specators last Saturday,” Mr Hadlee concluded.