IS TEST "CRICKET SLOW?

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1936, Page 12

IS TEST "CRICKET SLOW?

On the actual runs scored in two days' cricket the second Test match in Sydrjey looks unconscionably slow. On the first day .England scored 279 for the loss of three wickets, Hammond 147 not out. On Saturday 147 runs were added for the loss of three more wickets. Hammond, still not out 231, being responsible for more than half of ihe clay's total. No wonder then the "Sunday Sun" comments: "Two days have gone with Euglaadis.

first innings not completed. Next Friday is Christmas Day and the third Test starts on January 1. Players please note." But there is another side to the story which the veteran cricketer and critic, J. B. Hobbs, presents today. Play on Saturday was not unbroken. Showers caused interruptions and the effect of breaks in the play is almost invariably Lo slow down the pace until batsmen get their eye in again. Modern Test cricket has come more and more to preclude the taking of risks in the early stages of the game until the side batting has placed itself in a position to allow a margin of advantage in which to experiment. Furthermore, according to Hobbs, the Australian bowling was of a kind to keep the batsmen ever on the alert, while the field was cleverly placed to check scoring. It is, perhaps," regrettable, both from the point of view of the spectator and from the nature of the game of cricket, that Test matches should have become such grim struggles of endurance, but the importance attached to victory inevitably forces a policy of "safety first." The one bright spot is the masterly performance of Hammond, who once more shows himself a tower of strength to the English side. What would England be without him in the Tests?