INTER-IMPERIAL SPORT

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 63, 12 September 1921, Page 6

INTER-IMPERIAL SPORT

Though one unimportant fixture remains, the tour .of the Australian cricketers in the Old Country has y practically concluded. This wonderful team won the rubber in the first three of the five Tests, making eight successive Australian. Test yictories, and giving Australia an absolute majority in the whole record of de'oided Tests. Having reached that crowning point of the tour in.the shortest possible time, the, team appeared to rest upbn its oarS, for in the remaining two Tests it was glad to'draw—owing to the English system of time-limit—and' as the end of its programme drew nearer there were increasing signs of staleness, or, according to certain reports, of some little, rift within the lute, depreciating the music. A few days ago, the, first 'defeat, by a small margin of runs, challenged comparison . with the original All Blacks' football team, which came right through its programme with but one loss. The parallel, however, is«,faulty, because the All1 Blacks failed in what might reasonably be called a Test match; while the amateur team .that defeated Australia was certainly not Britain's best. To-day is published the news of a second loss to Mr. Thornton's eleven, from which it is to be assumed that, even allowing for Gregory's accident, the Australian combination has deteriorated through causes physical or, moral, perhaps both. Nevertheless, from the standpoint of achievement in the field, the tour has been*a brilliant one. The . regrettable feature is not the losses that have smudged the statistical record, but the disputes as to etiquette in the Tests, and other evidences of " bad blood-:" r So long as the highest sporting principles prevail,' inter-Imperial sport is capable of being a valuable bond of Empire. But when visits of athletic teams give rise to bad team work either on or off the field; to quarrels between teams: to unseemly disputes between leaders of the players* or between managers of the organisation and business side; also to disgraceful '.' barracking " incidents, the interImperial value Of such visits becomes heavily discounted. Indeed, •it is possible to imagine such a deterioration as will make the debits outweigh the credit side. It is not* necessary to apportion blame where many of the facts are still obscure, but it is clear that the moral effect of certain incidenta in the fourth and fifth Tests (one of "which appears to have Originated in the English captain's lack of acquaintance with the rules) and of the occasional conduct of the crowds in Australia and in England is" not good. Cricket and football have now attained so wide an Inter-Im-perial importance, and tennis is achieving so remarkable an international importance, that it becomes. a matter of public and general concern to keep the spotting standard on the highest plane. Part of the problem is how to handle such big financial transactions without commercialising the sport and placing the. professional spirit uppermost.! Players should realise that it is better to lose as .sportsmen than 1 3 win as sharpers; and the organisers should endeavour to come to an understanding by diplomacy before appealing to the public—j

though the latter course is quite justified if the former avails not. The first necessity is to insist upon Wide vision and high personal calibre in the men who head sporting organisations; and the second necessity is to insist, throughout the whole fabric, on the principle that the laws of hospitality and inter-Imperial brotherliness are superior to " fine points " and ungenerous victories. Since the crowd takes its cue from the leaders and the players, it is with them that the remedy lies. ;