HALF A CENTURY IN CRICKET

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33669, 19 October 1974, Page 4

HALF A CENTURY IN CRICKET

(By

R. T. BRITTENDEN)

Fifty years ago I. B. Cromb was elected to the first committee of the High School Old Boys’ Cricket Club; last week he was the negotiator for cricket with Lion Breweries in the introduction of the $250 “Lion Player of the Day” award. Half a century is a long association with a sport. But Cromb gives to cricket today the same vigour he applied to it as a player. He had a fine record for Canterbury and New Zealand. In England in 1931 he had some memorable performances at Lord’s, with his fast-medium bowling. He remained a top player until after the war; and then kept on in senior cricket until his retirement in the 1957-58 season. He was then 53. And he had put together more than 13,500 runs in championship matches, taken nearly 700 wickets and 150 catches. For a while, he was out of cricket administration, as well as the playing side. But he has come back in recent years with renewed enthusiasm. He is the president of the Canterbury Cricket Association, and a selector of Canterbury teams. As a player, Cromb was sufficiently forthright to

earn criticism. He was a determined, unorthodox, sometimes ruthless, but always a shrewd captain. He was never one for taking the long road round a problem. Direct action was his forte. And today, he displays the same characteristics. Sometimes, no doubt, he has been wrong in his views and in his theories. But always, he has carried with him a refreshing breeze of confidence. He does not wait for ideas to be sown, to sprout, grow, and be forgotten. He has the knack of getting people to do things for the game. Last season, as an instance, he hit on the idea of asking business houses to sponsor lunches at Lancaster Park during the firstclass season. This is common practice in England. It was new here. But his idea succeeded. He found

$l7OO in such sponsorship — and to , the cricket authorities, that was tantamount to another $l7OO worth of customers through the Lancaster Park gates. He spends much time and energy in coaching—young players, established players, it matters not. Even the most conservative of his charges will acknowledge that he has a great deal of value with his advice. He might not always couch it in the most diplomatic of terms, he might not accept all the old canons of cricket. But he has skill, experience, enthusiasm.

Today Canterbury cricket is very much in the debt of one of its stormy characters —one who may displease some with his short cuts, but one who finds the target much too often for his standing to be in doubt.