LACK OF PRACTICE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 62, 15 March 1927, Page 11

LACK OF PRACTICE

N.Z. CRICKETERS

AUSTRALIAN'S ADVICE

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Even!- g Post.")

DUNEDIN, This Day. Mr. Hugh Trumble, in an interview in the "Star," discussing New Zealand cricket, said: "It seems to me that your players need to be more aggressive. The half-volley is a half-volley, and the long-hop is a long-hop. Both these balls should be hit, but they are too often just played. There should bo no risk in hitting a bad ball. Many players imagine there is a trap behind these bad-length balls, but there rarely is."

Mr. Trumble went on to say that most of the cricketers in New Zealand were obviously out of practice, and that, he added, is a fatal thing. A cricketer should practice as a billiard player practises, constantly and conscientiously, specialising on shots that he is weak on and keeping eye and muscles in trim. The batsman should attack the bowline it every opportunity. "It is not only in New Zealand," Mr. Trumble hastened to add, "that over-careful batting is noticeable. In Australia these methods are largely in vogue. One frequently sees mediumpace bowlers operating without anyone in the outfield, which is a grave reflee tion on the batsmen. A good bat, seeing an open outfield, at once lifts eyen the well-pitched balls over the in-fields' heads. It is, of course, a great mistake to hit across at anything but the longhop. This is a fault very noticeable in New Zealand cricket—cross-bat hitting."

Mr. Trumble has noticed that some of our best-known New Zealand bowlers do not use their heads as < they should. In Christchurch recently, when the position of the game was such that the batting side had no hope of making the required runs in time, one bowler in his last over sent down seven balls a yard outside the off stick. He should have • pitched them close to the off stump and made the batsman play them Bowlers should always start pitching them close to the off pin and then work away, coming close again so soon as the batsman begins to let them pass. No batsmap likes to take the risk of letting a ball pass that is only a couple of inches off the wicket.

"The day will come," said Mr. Trumble, "when New Zealand will have a fine cricketing side. You have real natural turf wickets, good grounds, and a fine class of young athletic, men. The grounds and wickets in tho main centres are splendid, but in tho other parts the wickets are inclined to powder away. But," added Mr. .Trumble, "you must practise. Coaching is all right, but you must make up your mind to practise. You cannot teach a man to play out of a book. Put him on the right lines and then set him to practise. ". Asked what he thought of the chances of the Now Zealand team in England Mr. Trumble said that they should win a good many of their matches when they get into their stride. One advantage they would ha- was-that tho English wickets were much the same as those in New Zealand—good sporting wickets that gradually wear away, and not tho cast-iron last-for-ever 'Australian pitches. Some of the men would come back pretty good players, and this would be n good thing for New Zealand in that theso players would be models for the younger generation to copy. Host of tho Australian youngstors, said Mr. Trumble, learned their stylo from watching tho crack plnycrs, but cse youngsters had cricket intclligenco and enthusiasm.