PRAISE OF SPORT

Evening Star, Issue 22106, 13 August 1935, Page 4

PRAISE OF SPORT

TRAIT Of THE BRITISH Sir Stanley Jackson, in an address to the Manchester Luncheon Club on ‘ Sport and Cricket,’ spoke not only with the enthusiasm of a famous cricketer, hut also with an administrator’s knowledge of the part that sport always plays in sweetening race relationships in distant parts of the Empire (says the ‘Manchester Guardian’). Of later years, Sir Stanley said, there had been a tremendous increase in the number of sports being ‘ patronised by huge numbers of people in the British Isles. Recent weeks had provided a great example. He could remember the time, not so many years ago, when horse racing, football, and cricket were enough, and collected thousands of people to watch them, and these to-day drew their thousands and at'week-ends their millions.

“ I do not think it has ever been questioned,” he continued, “ that it is in the best interests of the country that people should take this great interest in sport. It is peculiar, this love of sport, and especially this love of watching it, to the British people. I am glad it is, because I often wonder what on earth they would do if they did not spend their time watching sport. The British people were the first to realise tlie value of sport. " Others attempted to emulate us with varying success. It has been my good fortune to visit various dominions and colonies, and I know perfectly well what a tremendous lot it has meant to those responsible for the administration to have the assistance of British sports and games in creating friendliness and good understanding among the people of those countries.”

The games had, of course, been imported into those countries by those who originally went out there, but it did not take the natives long to learn them and excel at them and come over here (or meet our teams who went over there) and hold their own against our best. He had known sport succeed in creating friendliness when all other efforts had failed. In Bengal, where the position was always rather awkward because the numbers of Mohammedans and Hindus were more or less equal, the two sects would meet one another at games when politically, socially, and evbn commercially they were estranged. Sir Stanley told of the ease with which he had been able to persuade Mohammedans and Hindus to play together in his cricket side, though he had been told that he would have some difficulty in doing so. It was the same thing in South Africa. Coming specially to cricket, “ about which he was supposed to know something,” Sir Stanley Jackson said: “I have been out of it for a long time, and I do not think at times I know as much as 1 did. After 30 years I find the game much as it used to be. It still manages to hold the support and affection of many thousands of people, and we all hope it will go on doing so. Coming here reminds me vividly of old Manchester days, especially those matches that used to be described by the Press (no doubt in some ways correctly) as ‘ battles of the roses.’ All those crowds were all good friends, and it is wonderful how those games are by people who have seen them, especially outside the Old Country. THE SENTRY’S QUESTION. “ In the South African War I was for a time in a Lancashire regiment— The King’s Own Regiment—and I had in my company one Yorkshireman. Once when I was going round at night I found him on sentry, and after he had reported all quiet he said, ‘ May I ask a question ’ ? When I told him he might, he asked, * Did Somerset beat Yorkshire ’ ? I replied, ‘ You must not think about that while you are on sentry. The whole camp is depending on you.’ He replied, ‘ Yes, sir. Is it true ’ P Later, the sergeant gave me a message from the man. The man had said, ‘ The captain asked me if I had anything to report. You can tell him I lost my blinkin’ half-crown.’ ” Sir Stanley _ Jackson regretted the tendency to think too much in terms of first-class cricket. The hundreds and hundreds of elevens playing school and club _ cricket, especially school cricket, provided the foundation on which firstclass cricket ultimately rested. These teams would go on even if first-class cricket ceased. For schools cricket cer-' tainly was a wonderful game. It promoted many qualities of high value. If he were asked to suggest improvements in the game he would find it not difficult to make suggestions, but when it came to practising them it was extraordinary how impracticable they were. People could make suggestions, and though they might not be contrary to_ the laws contained in a book they might sometimes not be desirable because they might possibly spoil the game. The experimental alteration to the Ibw rule in first-class cricket, seemed to _be going on satisfactorily. But the question now seemed to be what would happen if it were applied to second-class cricket. Those who played first-class cricket had got to learn the game down below, and it would not do for them when they reached first-class cricket to find things were entirely different. The public were prepared to support cricket wholeheartedly, but they wanted to feel they . were enjoying themselves and more or less getting their money’s worth. He would not criticise slow play, for he knew that sometimes it could not be avoided, but ho did sometimes wonder whether some batsmen had not been too impressed by the signs they saw round them when they were motoring and thought they were batting in a built-up area. He was glad to say there was no speed limit in cricket. Those who played must realise that the public came for entertainment. They even paid entertainment tax, and wanted to see the game as far as possible “ speeded up ” in a sensible way, not foolishly. We had many reasons' to be thankful in this country and one of them was that people did_ possess the peculiar and priceless instinct for occupying their leisure and enjoying themselves in sports and games. Some of the popularity of games was that they were admirably conducted, and the people who went and watched them behaved as model crowds. It was desirable that who carried tho public confidence. In control should be in the hands of men that case the public could go and <*et their pleasure out of it, and at the same time some real benefit.