Selectors Attack Was Petty, Poorly Timed

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30808, 21 July 1965, Page 15

Selectors Attack Was Petty, Poorly Timed

TT was an ill-judged time "*■ the Wellington cricket selectors chose to make a thinly-disguised criticism on the province’s Plunket Shield team captain, J. R. Reid, last week. By making their five recommendations to the Wellington Cricket Association wMe Reid was captaining the New Zealand team overseas, the selectors (Messrs R. A. Vance, con-

vener, F. L. H. Mooney, and I. P. Upston) gave every indication of being unwilling to cross swords with Reid. The tone of the recommendations (reported in “The Press” on Friday), and particularly . the W.C.A. should not favour a current Plunket Shield player being a national selector” hints very strongly at a vendetta between Reid and last season’s selection panel. The same recommendation goes on: “If this is unavoidable, we strongly recommend that such a player is not appointed captain of the Plunket Shield side.” This is rather petty. Reid was a national selector last season (and appointed before the season commenced) but to suggest that, because of this, he should not be in the Wellington side, is ridiculous. Similarly, Reid was Wellington captain, as he is New Zealand’s captain, by

right of his great record for province and country in the last 17 years or so. If the selectors felt Redd was more concerned in selecting the New Zealand slide than captaining Wellington efficiently last season, surely a more honest approach would have been to state that they thought it was too much to expect one man to do both jobs. Last season, Reid was not available for Wellington’s games against Pakistan and Otago. Reid said at the time he announced his unavailability for the first match that it was the first occasion since he began first-class cricket, that he was not available for a match for a reason other than injury or illness. So one of the other selectors’ recommendations is that “the captain, appointed for the season, must be available for all games.”

Memories, it appears, are short, and particularly in the case of Mr Vance. When Reid returned from a triumphant tour of South Africa early in 1962, he had played in all but one of the first-class matches. On arrival in New Zealand, he captained the side against Ron Roberts’ Commonwealth XI but asked not to be considered for Wellington’s two-day mateh. There were inevitable accusations that Reid would not play under the captaincy of Vance (who led the Plunket Shield side), but when a vacancy cropped up, Reid filled it, having seen virtually nothing of his family since his return. Although the selectors’ recommendations were adopted by the W.C.A., the words “unless circumstances dictate otherwise” were prefaced in each case. It can only be hoped the W.C.A. decides Reid’s “circumstances” dictate thus and logic prevails.