CRICKET No Definite Australian Offer To Bartlett

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29162, 24 March 1960, Page 6

CRICKET No Definite Australian Offer To Bartlett

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, March 23. The New Zealand fast bowler, G. A. Bartlett, said in Auckland today that he had not . received any definite offer of ’ a job in Australia to play cricket there. As far as he knew, he would be available for the New Zealand tour of South Africa next year. “I can’t make any further comment on the reported offer because I don’t know enough about it,” Bartlett said. The Australian Associated Press correspondent travelling with the Australian team touring New Zealand said a leading world industrial chemical firm was prepared to take Bartlett, who is only 19, to Sydney next season to play for a Sydney club, according to a Melbourne message. But Bartlett, who had learnt of the proposal yesterday, was

likely to decline, the correspondent said. The correspondent said it was believed that arrangements could be made for Bartlett to continue his carpentry apprenticeship, should he go to Australia. He would be eligible after completing residential qualifications to play for Australia. Bartlett, provided his left leg stood up to a heavy pounding could become the finest fast bowler in the world, said the correspondent. He had the pace of F. H. Tyson in Australia in 1954-55. His action did not allow for drag and consequently he came down hard on the left leg. This necessitated constant heavy massage treatment for shin soreness. The Australian captain, I. D. Craig, said before leaving New Zealand today that Bartlett in his opening spell was as fast as Australia’s leading fast bowler, I. Meckiff, who toured New Zealand in 1957. “Bartlett has not developed Meckiffs stamina and sustained speed but he is still very young,” Craig said. “I don’t think he is quite as fast as our test player G. Rorke.” Craig said that Bartlett, still Inexperienced, did not do enough with the ball through the air. “Although he '» genuinely fast be fir generally stralght Hp and down,” he said. ; Bartlett, still in his first full season of first-class cricket, has startled most New Zealand batsmen with his ability to get dangerous lift off a length.