RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31627, 13 March 1968, Page 19

RANDOM REMINDER

DECLARATION

The Indian cricket team's tour of New Zealand is over, the season is drawing to a close, and all over New Zealand, this is a matter of rejoicing among lonely wives and rejected sweethearts. They have a week or two at the end of March before their loneliness and rejection starts all over again, with the Rugby season. Cricket fanatics are probably the worst of the lot. The N.Z.B.C. panders to them with ball-by-ball descriptions of just about

every match played by cricketers old enough to wear long trousers, television does its share of the spoiling, and the newspapers often mention the game too. The real addict can drive a woman crazy, when he is up through the line listening through the static to Australia in England or Pakistan B playing West Indies Colts in the Leeward Islands. The whole business can affect a man’s judgment. Years ago there was a week-end match in Nelson

and a vicar, who loved cricket with tremendous fervour, persuaded the players to attend service before going out to resume battle on the Sunday. They all duly arrived, and sat in front of the congregation. But the minister was affected by the presence of his team-mates, and the knowledge that the game, soon to be resumed, was at a most critical stage. He completed his reading of the Lesson by saying “And here endeth the first innings.”