Cricket Writers Cautious About England’s Prospects

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30420, 20 April 1964, Page 12

Cricket Writers Cautious About England’s Prospects

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, April 19. British cricket writers were in a cautious mood today as they welcomed the arrival of the Australian team for the coming test. series against England. Thev said the Australians would be hard to- beat.

In the “Sunday Express,” Denis Compton said it was “nonsense” to think that the Australians were the weakest side of the century and that they had come “merely to hand back the Ashes.” “If England is to win this series it will have to ignore such talk and prepare for the tense, sometimes terrifying tests that are the hallmark of all fights for the Ashes,” he wrote.

Compton described the Australian skipper, Bobby Simpson, as “a resolute character with a sound knowledge of the game” even if he lacked Richie Benaud’s flair. Seam Attack Simpson’s seam attack could be his biggest headache, but “it is in the spin department that the Aussies may upset our dreams of regaining the Ashes.” He said the Australian batting would undoubtedly be strong. The “Sunday Telegraph cricket writer, Michael Melford, said English public opinion seemed “dangerously prepared” to consider Simpson’s side the weakest to come to England for years. “Admittedly Benaud and Davidson, the two giants of 1961, have gone,” he wrote. “Admittedly the chances of new Australian spinners succeeding first time out on English pitches are slim. “But Lawry, the batsman who won the 1961 series is back again; McKenzie, still only 22, might well become as effective as Miller or Davidson or Archer; and Australia on good pitches is certain to be desperately hard to bowl out.” Batting Strength

Melford added: “Where this Australian side does seem to have an advantage over England at the moment is in batsmen capable of building an innings. “Test matches are won by batsmen making 150, not 50, and England negotiated last summer’s series against the West Indies without an innings total of 300 or an individual 100.”

Frank Tyson, in the “Observer.” warned it would be a mistake to think the fact there were nine players in

the Australian side with little or no test experience was an automatic guarantee of English success in the coming series.

“Inexperience does not necessarily imply lack of ability—more often than not it merely signifies the absence of opportunity,” he wrote.

Although Australians remained obdurately optimistic, the undercurrent of cricket opinion was far less optimistic about their chances. “If the fast bowling strength is extended for long periods Australia may find it

increasingly difficult to produce winning bursts—even against the counties,” he added.

Attractive Cricket At a press conference at London airport after the team arrived from Bombay, Simpson said: “I do not promise bright cricket, but we are all anxious to play attractive cricket.”

Simpson stressed the strength of the ■ batting: “I hope to do a lot of bowling and I am certainly planning to open the innings as well. “If I don’t I might not get a knock, because these youngsters are really good and of course we have some fine experienced batsmen in Brian Booth, Norman O’Neill, Bill Lawry and Peter Burge.” The Australians’ first game is a one-day fixture against the Duke of Norfolk’s XI at Arundel, Sussex, next Saturday.