STATE OF CRICKET

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 125, 31 May 1927, Page 17

STATE OF CRICKET

HIGH EFFICIENCY

AN ENGLISH VIEWPOINT

BSENCB OF GREAT PERSONALITIES

Some interesting observations.on the present condition of cricket were made recently by Mr. Neville Cardus— "Cricketer" of the "Manchester Guardian"—in an address delivered before the members of the Manchester Luncheon Club at the Midland Hotel.

Commenting on the absence in county cricket to-day of personalities, Mr. Cardus' admitted that there was a good deal of efficiency in cricket. The batting at Old Trafford right through the team revealed a higher degree of efficiency to-day; th^n. it iad.ever,done before. Bat it was not the batting of men who played cricket with all their heart and mind and: wit. .And by. wit, he,explained, he meant a, sort of opportunism.

By ijjay of- illustration; Mr. Cardus .referred to ar.inatch p}ayed at, Old Trafford in JS^.betweeji Lancashire, and Yorkshire which ■wag made famous by a«g«»}!,. catch on the,, boundary, by Albert Ward. Yorkshire required-, a. few runs to win, and, with their last men in, George Ulyett, one of the greatest hitters pf his--.-day, faced the bowling of Johnny Briggs. Briggs did not shirk the situation. He determined to take a ri3k»iand ,tpssea.,up.a slqw ; bail. It was axourageous challenge, and Ulyett, who saw the slow-ball coming, as bravely accepted it. H« welted the ball with all few _might. .It soared up into the air, and was caught on the boundary. Briggs, by challenging Ulyett with his .slow, ball, won ,the. match for Lancashire. IJlyett, .by accenting the challenge, lost it for Yorkshire. But" they each won something, at v f»*..more moment than a temporary victory. They achieved a kind of immortality. Mr. Cardus contrasted this occasion with another at Old Trafford a few years ago bt.tween the same two counties, under circumstances that were just as critical. It was the last over of the match and Yorkshire required four to win. But the Lancashire bowler and the batsman simply to stop them one by one, and the match ended in an inglorious draw, with points for Yorkshire from a win on the first innings. My point/ Mr. Cardus commented, is that you must not allow any sort of external machinery in the way of championship points to come along and crush the real Bpmt pf the game. A chalenge has to be thrown down and picked up. You can get a standardised techS an, dj!av« « good routine game absence of reasonable risks there will be no real delight or joy in the game."

ADVENTURE NOT DEAD. rf,,»tJ aß *BOmeA hnes suSgested, Mr. Cardus went on, that there were too many professionals pi 3 y in g cricket t™^ BvlnA^S SUffered because thek living depended upon it, and they theretu« UL^ 6 Wf i Bat?Bned that human na- «£« lOt lost its adventurous spirit ™t L? h£ B°r', of Pressure was b P einK put upon these players, and he suggested that the crowd itself was-larclly to blamo From his own experience it was the p avers not unnaturally responded/ i^^KsSi^erj nn !« • aOt B°T? lUch on Personality as on efficiency. He referrod, by wav of illustration, to the case of *p£% ot % who was a good cricketer, but not a great.cricketer, yet who was now break T nr g um T° rdS !» "AMtr.U. *h" Victor' Trumpor or Clem Hill never dreamed

suggest th,t our cricketers should pS and be Z'l^Z Bnd ent wh?,h A* l°- Ok-*°, Ut for that »oi& S»7 Ar!hle MacLaron had de-

THE CAPTAINCY QUESTION And that brought him to the important question of captaincy. We had no cd 6 was^ot" 1. 8 tO'AT ™at ™ ™"t----smaU hM «. £ UCh tO, *et rid of tho ™VLa the BDlall captain. Wo Certain Hn^^ 0 t °°Uld d"cide n P°* thnm I ■6t ,strate «y and abide by Ws will üß™ll^uß™ll^ hl a luck and imP°«ng wVitT Li^ A ° team > *et he co*li no* who co te 5M nai?5 s of «ix caPt«ns Tent ZJI £ W'l He '^erred to a regear ssa*si»: much too weak as too "nice." We Gr»i Tl c ct ptains of the type "f nI an«.-^ H<ll nby ' Who Put their whole ?m™ i nto, T the game-both moral and unmoralt (Laughter.) He saw no reaaZZJ^ mHn nature ■h«""4 have sudWritavM*^" 4 h- a Waß sure that we played the game in the same living and vital way we ahould once more produce personalities on the cricket field as original as any produced in the past. • Cardu, recalled Jessop's famous innings for England when he scored 104 in an hour and a quarter. When Jessop went in to bat six or seven wickets were down for about 90 runs f, cB»°P l? new that the game was lost if he allowed it to remain in a world Pure." a»oa—daughter)—so he decided without more to do to take it into the irrational world of melodrama. (Kenowed laughter.) Mr. Cardus also referred to a famous partnership for England between Hirst and Rhodes when only a few runs were required for victory. Hirst met itnodes, a raw recruit, coming to the wicket, and said to him, "Wilfrid, we'll get those runs. We'll get 'em by singles, and if tha' gets out I'll warm thoe." (Laughter.) And the runs wore got, Mr. Cardus added, because the game meant so much to them. They played with their whole heart ana soul not with a mere standardised technique. It was doubtful whether from the merely competitive point of view cricket was the best game played to-day. The result, at all events, was something which very few of us could attend. The supremo attraction of ; cricket, he thought, lay in something very different; in character, and a style—safe or unsafe—that was the man himself.