CASE OF GRIFFITHS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 58, 10 March 1937, Page 12

CASE OF GRIFFITHS

N.Z. COUNCIL CRITICISED

SELECTORS' PROBLEM

Surprise at certain features of the selection of the New Zealand cricket team has given place to much indignation over the treatment accorded B. G. Griffiths, of Wellington, in the decision which has caused him to be withdrawn from the team for this year's tour of England. It is considered that the. first person to have been notified of the New Zealand Cricket Council's decision should have been Griffiths, but it was not until Griffiths had received the news through a Press message and had later communicated with the Cricket Council that he was advised officially of the fact that he had been withdrawn from the team through having failed to pass the doctor.

It is well known that Griffiths is one of the most active ' of cricketers, and for that reason his failure to pass the medical test was surprising. It is felt in local cricket circles, however, that a great injustice has been done Griffiths in his not being notified of the position before a statement was published in the newspapers.

"In my opinion, and I am satisfied that it is the opinion of everybody whether they favoured Griffiths's inclusion or not," stated one prominent cricket official in Wellington, "the proper thing for the New Zealand Cricket Council to have done before giving any information to the Press was to have told Griffiths that he had been turned down by the doctor, told him on what grounds, and given him the op-1 portunity of supplying an answer, if lie! so desired. The council's first duty was to Griffiths. It has acted- absolutely wrongly in dealing with the matter as it did." .The point is also made that-Griffiths had not withdrawn from the team, as had been indicated, but had been ruled out. FILLING THE VACANCY. Witii the regret at . Griffilhs's bad luck there is speculation as to how the vacancy in the New Zealand team will be filled. In view of what was said by Mr. N. C. Sncdden, a member of the New Zealand selection committee, after the choice of players had been announced, it will be interesting to see whether a slow bowler is now chosen to fill the vacancy. It was stated by Mr. Snedden that the selectors considered it would be suicidal to send a team without a spin righthanded bowler, and for that reason i Griffiths had been selected. , I

Sharp and Groves were slow bowlers on trial, but they did,not impress sufficiently. No doubt, the selectors decided on some extra players in case of emergency, but it is hardly likely that these two bowlers were next in lino for places in the team. Then, of course,. the question of sending a fifteenth man is still unsettled, so far as is known. It was expected that in the event of a fifteenth man being sent it would be a wicketkeeper, for which position Blandford was quite the strongest claimant. However, with the type of bowler on whom a great deal depended on the tour now being out, it would appear to bo not unlikely that to give the team added all-round strength two players with all-round ability may be chosen. , ■

Special attention, of course, must be given to bowling. Though it was not a question of Griffiths or Gallichan in the original selection, there is a ehsince now of Gallichan being considered. Still, it seemed that both Lamason and Parsloe were among those who must have just missed when the selectors completed their choice of fourteen, and they must now be well in"*the reckoning again. Cromb was another of the unlucky players, and it is suggested in Christchurch that the filling of the vacancy, caused by Griffiths being ruled out, should lie between Cromb, Gallichan, and Mulcock.