BARTLETT ACTION

Press, Volume C, Issue 29463, 15 March 1961, Page 21

BARTLETT ACTION

Comment On Reports

“We want to dissociate the team from what Brian

Chapman said: he had no right to say it,” said the captain of the M.C.C.

team, D. R. W. Silk, commenting yesterday on a report in the London

“Daily Mirror” that the New Zealand fast bowler, G. A. Bartlett, was a “chucker.”

The report said that most of the members of the M.C.C. team agreed with the writer’s view. “I consider that Bartlett is not only a very fine bowler, but a magnificent prospect,” said Silk, who added that he was very impressed by Bartlett. and wished him the very best of luck in South Africa

The captain of the New Zealand team. J. R. Reid, who is also one of the selectors, said he thought Bartlett had a fair action. “We would not have picked him jf he wasn’t right,” said Reid. "He has got a whippy wrist but then so have a lot of others.” Reid added that Ron Roberts of the London "Daily Telegraph" had said earlier in the tour that Bartlett was “all right.” “This is the first time it has ever been suggested that Bartlett’s action is not entirely fair,” said the chairman of the New Zealand Cricket Council’s Board of Control (Mr J. L. Kerr) last evening. "Dennis Silk has stated that the umpiring in New Zealand is first-class. No umpire in this country has ever called Bartlett for throwing. Those are the facts, and that is all that needs to be said.” said Mr Kerr. “The New Zealand selectors chose Bartlett, and they must therefore be satisfied with him.”