THREE MISTAKES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 34, 10 February 1927, Page 12

THREE MISTAKES

S. G. SMITH INTERVIEWED

CHANCES OP SUCCESS

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Evening Post.'')

AUCKLAND, This Day

Asked for views about the selection of the^New Zealand cricket team, Mr. S. Gr. Smith, holder of the record for the highest score in Plunkot Shield cricket, who was a member of the first West Indies team to England and later a leading Northants player before coming to the Dominion, stated that he considered the selectors had made three mistakes. Ho felt all along, and still thought, that the team should be a purely New Zealand side of bona fide New Zealand residents and players. For that reason alone he regretted BndcoeU's selection, though there was no question of his ability as an all-rounder But inclusion was a mistake in principle. •.

The other two errors were, in Mr, Smith's opinion, errors of cricket-judg-

ment. Koiyntrce, of Auckland, who was beyond compare the best 'keeper in the country, was still in his prime and would have made the New Zealand bowling attack a great deal more effective than it would be with the next best 'keeper. If anything happened to James, whose inclusion Mr. Smith upholds, the team would be greatly handicapped by having to rely entirely on Lowry, who was not by any means a first-class wicketkeeper and did not like the position. It was a great pity that Eowntree could not still go as fifteenth man. The remaining surprise was the selection of Merritt on so slender a trial as that of one game between Otago and Canterbury. A left-hand slow bowler would be an asset to the side, but Mr. Smith understood that Merritt, like Blunt, was a slow right-hander. Personally, he thought it would have been much more reasonable to have included Matheson, who had bowled consistently throughout the whole of the season's Plunket Shield games. Hiddleston, the leading "Wellington batsman, declared that Matheson was the best bowler he had met in Plunket Shield games in a number of years. Although M' Girr 's selection had been criticised, Mr. Smith thought that the Wellington man was the type of allrounder who would contribute more materially to the team's effectiveness than the others who had ■ been suggested, and Mr. Smith entirely agreed in M'Girr's choice. Eegarding the team's chances in England, Mr. Smith said that he was sure that it would win a number of games against the minor counties and get some drawn games against some of the first-class counties. It would not, in his opinion, compare with the West Indies side of 1913, which included two fast bowlers, Francis and Small, who were better than any Englishmen of the time. Also the New Zealanders would not have batsmen of the calibre of Challenor, who was supported by other fine batsmen.