In the Company of Great Athletes.

Evening Star, Issue 26156, 18 July 1947, Page 4

In the Company of Great Athletes.

New Zealand cricketers and athletes generally will feel the utmost pride in the current achievements, of the young lefthand batsman, M. P. Donnelly, in English first class cricket. For a number of years now, in fact since the tour of England by M. L. Page’s team in 1937, Donnelly has been .regarded-by the best judges in the game as an outstanding player, but this season his career has reached a fresh pinnacle. The, classification of Donnelly‘by London critics this week alongside Woolley and Clem Hill may owe something to the thrill which his magnificent innings of 162 not out against the Players inspired. More distant authorities will question it on the ground that cricket at the moment is not of a standard comparable with the days when Woolley and Hill dominated the scene. There may be justification for such criticism, but it is not likely that the ranking of Donnelly as “ the best left-hand batsman in the world to-day ” will be seriously disputed. In fact, it is more than possible that his main rival for this distinction is another New Zealander, Otago’s B. Sutcliffe.

Donnelly is continuing his studies at Oxford after service with the armed forces. He was established in international cricket before the war. After the 1937 tour, in' which he was second in the averages to New Zealand's other great batsman, C. S. Dempster, “ Wisden ” considered him “ decidedly a star in the making,” and made particular reference to his remarkable coolness in the crisis of the second test match. On that occasion, although only a youngster, he played a match-saving innings.

It is clear that Donnelly has already • justified the highest -expectations held of him. He has joined the company of New Zealand’s greatest athletes—men like Anthony Wilding and Jack Lovelock. And his performances gain lustre from his unstinted loyalty .to his own country.