CRICKET IN EUROPE

Evening Star, Issue 20440, 22 March 1930, Page 2

CRICKET IN EUROPE

£ SLOW GROWTH jV HUMOURS OF THE GAME C ; German side for England. ,;yV;, . ■■•' ' '* b [Rvritten by Cybaso, for the ‘ Evening \ , Star.’] t ,L*sf ■ ■ week’s • b«ks : -that ■. » German r iericket tbm is to visit England next ; iAtijrosi* will V liave read * with surprison and even with' hilarity. Do any Germans play cricket? ikwillbo asked. There ■ may be old-fashioned patriots who will strongly support the words ot an English poet:— No German, Frenchman, ,0$ Fijee will ever master cricket sir, ■ ■ Because they haven’t got the pluck to stand before the wicket, sir; or those of a facetious critic who preferred to write in prose.:; The Italians are too fat for-cricket, the I* reach too thin, the Dutch too dumpy, the Be r tdaus .too bilious, the' Swiss too sentimental! ' the' Greeks too lazy, and the Germans too ■ short* in the : wind. At ia a fact, however* 'that, some Coiitineritaladcrphty cridlict, y ; For years there ■ has-dbeen.a cricket league in Paris, and Frahco has ;met Belgium..and Holland, and at least, .once Germany. Denmark sent a team to England in 1926—Jt. is significant that it was called (in England at least) the of Denmark —and - all save' one had Danish 1 names. “The Danes have the right cricketing temperament in a very marked degree,” said “ Wisden, _ but they need' .the Jielp ‘ of »' professional eoacli. : Informational matches with Holland, wilt he inaugurated nest year. A certain amount of cricket has been played in" Germany for many years. A club was founded in Berlin in- 1858, and at first many injuries were suffered by the spectators, who, despite warnings, crowded close to the wicket. The British occupation after the Great War led to a good deal of cricket being played, and in 1926 the M.C.C. sent a side to Cologne. No doubt all this activity caused a certain number of Germans to take up the game. The Germans, however, are not accustomed to team games. Drill and gymnastics—, ab least in the old days—were preferred as,-bodily exercishs. I remember as » boy discussing/ the question with a German of jtfyalprofessional class. He, was a ftnelfigßr.p-of a man—tall, deepchested", ) and>mnsciilnr, but not very agile.' ,T©! .hiyV.chatnpioning of cricket he when you bowl, does it not develbp only one side of your body ? Now with us we have exercises for every ,part of the body, even to the eye- - ? Tjmt, however, was long ago; now/; ptfphably the value of games is better,., in Germany. Mr.vtVS. Aahloy-Cooper, in ‘Cricket ■ Highways; and ’ By ways/ to which I am * indebted’sfor,,facts about cricket in 3?ur<rt», says;• that; i some of the Continental dn> cricket are welt worth* collectingsThat is easy to believe. So are eojhtf foreigners’ opinions on the game.: ‘* An active, running, driving, Tumping.'game, which can only be played by a pqrson; having a good pair of legs, and in-a, climate where warmed purtch' is found insufficient to keep.up; animal .heat. . . . Some-, times ft (the, ball) tumbles into a thicket, and the .players take hours before’ they can get hold of it, and all this .time, the player does not cease run:frnrft' post .to .post and marking points*. . - The arrangements for She cricket match • include a, sumptuous dinner in the marquee for fifty persons, fen indispensable to surery cricket match. This was a Por-

tuguose description. I like the last touch, vv It recalls Norman Gale’s de* lightful yersoit— . ? I’m not a good cover, I freely admit, Aud I’ni not very handy at point; I’m growing inert, and no longer exert The nimble gymnastic joint. I cannot rejoice when a hurricane cut Contuses my shin with its crunch; AVhen fielding to hitters ray heart patter-pitters, ■■ But trust me to sparkle at much— I, radiate freely at lunch.' “It’s a truly magnificent game,” said a Frenchman to an Englishman when the 31.C.C. visited Paris in 1867, “ but I cannot understand why you do not engage a servant to field for you, instead of having so much running about to ! do yourself.’’ A Sultan of Turkey made a similar remark while looking at cricket in Constantinople. I, can be-lieve-these stories easily, just as I can .believe,that when a club player brought ’off ; a spectacular catch before the exiled ; Napoloon 111. an aide-de-camp approached him and asked him to do it again. I can believe also that a French account of play in Paris said that the bowler “watches for the favourable moment when the attention of the batsman is distracted, and then launches it (the ball) at him with incredible force.” But I fold it difficult to believe that this delightful French explanation of the game is as genuine as Mr AshleyCooper affirms. “Let us, then, observe the cricket game, my dear Gaston.” • “But, my friend; Henri, the cricket game I do not understand.” “Eh, bien,. here’is the tram; let us seat ourselves 1 , and as we go I explain. There are eleven fnen on each side, two umpires, two wickets, a ball, and some guards, since /the ball is very hard. A player stands, at the wicket, and, behold, one hiirb down at him the ball, tlie no-ball,; the wide-ball, the leg-break, the googly, tho headbreak. the rapid, the very slow. C’est terrible! Moil Dieu, you will admire! The batter, who has a flat club, makes the strokes—tho on-drive, the ofl> .drive, the back-cut, tho upper cut, the leg pull, and the left hook, strokes of a skill incroyable. The crowd cries ‘ Brava,’ like 31. lo Professeur Hall at the opera. But, alas! The batter misses the ball; the wicket is knocked down. One cries, ‘How out?’ and the umpire nods his head. .Thereupon tho batter retires, and they place upon the hoard his score aud the letters Ibw. Sometimes the umpire cries ‘Over,’ and all walk over to'the other side for the sake of. • exercise. The game, Gaston, is of great simplicity. And —I almost forget—wearied by the continual striking of the ball, the batters, too, for the purpose of recuperation, run swiftly up and down between the wickets.” “It seems very dangerous, Henri.” “True! For me, 1 would rather exercise niyself with diabolo or dominoes.” This strikes me as a bit of fun concoctt r in a British community. Could it have been written in Melbourne? You notice the allusion to “Professor Hall.” England has put a girdle of cricket round' the world, and if tlie ; game has not been taken up in foreign countries with the enthusiasm it deserves, that is not her fault. When Frederick Tennyson, brother of the poet, wrote to Fitzgerald, tho famous translator of Omar Khayyam, describing a match in Italy, “ Fitz” commented: “Is not this pleasant—tho notion of good English blood striving in worn out Italy? I like that such men as Frederick should be abroad ; so strong, 'haughty, and passionate. They keep up the English character abroad.” This may help you to understand why tlie English were not beloved in Europe in tho nineteenth .century. But this i

was in 1840, and possibly Fitzgerald, wlkj Jived to see Italy triumphant under Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel and Cavour revised his opinions of her. Do any Italians play_ cricket to-day? They have gone iar in tennis, and I believe they are taking to football. It. is possible that some day there will bo cricket test matches betwen England, Germany, France, Holland, Denmark, and other European countries, but so is Empire Freetrade—theoretically. There are several things I wish I were as sure of as'l am that cricket will never be as popular abroad as tennis and “Soccer.” (So muc)i “Soccer” is played on the Continent now, and played sometimes so well that the Foreign Office felt compelled to ask that more care bo taken with the selection of travelling English teams. Defeats wero affecting English prestige). Cricket is too distinctively English to conquer the non-British world. “Gosh, .1. wan ter- like this darned game,” said an American at Lords, “but ! just can’t. I don’t got it. A bunch of wise-looking guys sitting around makihg alfresco polite tea party noises to a funeral party in white ducks I No, sir, its got mt guessing!” Well, it’s their loss. Wo must watch this German visit to England, and see if anything comes of it in Germany*