DRAIN ON CRICKET

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 104, 29 October 1932, Page 14

DRAIN ON CRICKET

LANCASHIRE'S RAID

MR. REESE ON WARPATH

IDEALS AND FINANCE

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Evening Post.")

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

In a letter to the newspapers Mr. D. Reese, ex-president of the New Zealand Cricket Association, refers in strong terms to the raid by Lancashire on Dominion cricket.

"For some considerable time," writes Mr. Reese, "I have been tempted to express views that I am sure must be shared by many people in the Dominion. When the first New Zealand cricket team went to England who thought that within five years four of our leading players would have been enticed to take up positions in England, and thus grievously defeat the whole purpose of such tours? The latest overtures to a fifth New Zealand player must compel the attention of the authorities of the game, apart from all other considerations, which are serious enough in themselves. The monetary cost to New Zealand is an important matter. AVith Merritt and Blunt each having two tours to England, and Dacre and Cromb one each, all at the expense of the New Zealand Cricket Council and its supporters, it is safe to say that the total cost of these four players alone was not less than £5000. It surely cannot bo expected that this exodus should be allowed to continue unchecked?

"Less than a year ago the New Zealand Cricket Council, with praiseworthy courage, took steps to protect New Zealand cricket, and *it now appears imperative that the Canterbury Cricket Association should take some action to protect Canterbury cricket. It is intolerable that a New Zealand player should act as intermediary • for Lancashire League clubs. The strongly developed commercialism of the Lancashire Rugby League and the Lancashire Cricket League, with unabashed enticement of leading players from .various parts of the world, is not only totally out of keeping with the ideals that have governed our national games until now, but constitutes a menace to national standards, and the prestige of cricket and Rugby in every part; of the ■ftmpire. '

The letter concludes: "The seriousness of this raid on our cricketers is sufficient justification for my speaking so plainly and suggesting'to the cricket *hn iT£ lel .that, ,aPP r°priate measures should be taken."