BOLD APPROACH WOULD EMBELLISH BUSY CRICKET SEASON

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31500, 14 October 1967, Page 11

BOLD APPROACH WOULD EMBELLISH BUSY CRICKET SEASON

(COMPETITIVE cricket in Christchurch begins today, the Start of one of the most important, busiest, and interesting seasons for years. The fanatical cricket supporter never finds the season long enough, nor the programme of matches sufficient to fill all the blanks between Saturdays: but he should have enough to entertain him this summer. The club championship promises to be especially hardfought Last season, there was little between top and bottom teams. This time, East Christchurch-Shirley and Old Collegians rejoin

the other six, and their effort to re-establish themselves as senior clubs will not be the least interesting aspect of the season. Three Plunket Shield matches will be played at Lancaster Park, and there will be a test match against India on the . same ground. The Brabin tournament is to be held in Christchurch and there will also be two matches with a team of Australian secondary schoolboys—by no means the least attractive item on a full programme. The Fijians are touring, too: but the weeks immediately ahead will be de-

voted largely to following the affairs of the New Zealand team which sets off for Australia next month. The New Zealand team will play a Canterbury team in Christchurch before it departs. There will certainly be no lack of cricket. And there is no need to believe that most of it will not be good cricket There is a slowly growing consciousness throughout the cricket world that tiie game must entertain if it is to flourish. Cricket would not be worth watching were it all rustic hits and run-outs; but attacking cricket need not be crude or careless. There is no proper place in the game, now, for the

deliberate negation of some of cricket’s most attractive features by bowling designed to cramp and restrict, and by unimaginative batting from players unwilling to accept a challenge. Senior captains in Christchurch have a duty to attack—logically and sensibly, but to attack. Canterbury last season narrowly failed to win the Plunket Shield, but took the award for the most enterprising team. Bold and imaginative cricket can bring many rewards—among them unexpected and spectacular successes. Given cricketing weather, the season ahead should be a rewarding one for those who play, and for the many who remain faithful to a game which has been in a critical state—for at least a hundred years.