CRICKET Selection Of Same Team Satisfactory

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28835, 4 March 1959, Page 14

CRICKET Selection Of Same Team Satisfactory

[By R.T.B.]

Whatever the deficiencies of the New Zealand team in the test against England at Lancaster Park, it is satisfactory that the same eleven has been chosen for the second match at Auckland next week.

In the past, there has been far too much willingness to drop a player after one match. It has been unfair to the individual and to New Zealand cricket generally. There was a classic example of this after the first .test at Wellington against South Africa in 1953. Five of the players were dropped for the second test—E. M. Meuli, J. G. Leggat, T. B. Burtt, A. M. Moir, and F. E. Fisher. Moir and Burtt have undoubtedly been New Zealand’s best post-war spin bowlers, Leggat was third top scorer in one innings and top in the second, Meuli made 15 and 23, which gave him the third-best match aggregate. There is little, point in selecting a player if he is to be firopped after qne poor match. Ori a pitch less responsible to spin. New Zealand could give a better account of itself at Auckland, with the players who came and went so swiftly at Christchurch.

It is inescapable that New Zealand cricket is at a low level, and the standard of the best players is generally mediocre. There are a few players, some of them in Canterbury, who might be regarded as unlucky not to have been-given a chance this season, but once the selectors chose their first test team, they must be commended for sticking to it. By the same token, players such as J. W. D’Arcy, N. S. Harford and L. S. M. Miller might have been included in the first test team.. But any further changes at this stage would not help New Zealand much. None of the batsmen in England distinguished themselves particularly, but D’Arcy and W. R. Playle, who had very poor results, at least had a full season to prove themselves. It was a difficult season, and one in which both these young batsmen showed outstanding courage, but their tour results speak for themselves,. They ? are both , enough to come again, and. it it to be hoped that they wilL At Christchurch, B, A. Bolton, J. R. Reid, and J. W. Guy were the only ones to make any significant number of runs, although E. C. Petrie’s two innings were both marked by sound and composed batting. If the Auckland pitch plays well, there is no reason why New Zealand should not make a reasonable number of runs.

Perhaps it would mean that England would score really heavily—but that sort of a game would be preferred to the batting quick march at Christchurch. The team Is:—

R. W. Blair (Wellington), B. A. Bolton (Canterbury), J. W. Guy (Canterbury), R. M. Harris (Auckland), K. W. Hough (Auckland), I. B. Leggat (Central Districts), S. N. McGregor (Otago), A. M. Moir (Otago), E. C. Petrie (Northern Districts), J. R. Reid (Wellington), captain, J. T. Sparling (Auckland) , B. Sutcliffe (Otago), vice-captain.