NEW ZEALAND CRICKET

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 October 1933, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND CRICKET

PROFIT FROM M.C.C. VISIT. Of the three matches played in New Zealand last season by the M.C.C. team captained by D. R. Jardine, by much the most profitable to the New Zealand Cricket Council was the first Test, played in Christchurch. The gate-takings at this totalled £2233 15/6. The ground rent paid to the Lancaster Park Board was £4lO/18/7 the amount paid to gatekeepers £6O 1/6, and the amusement tax was £lO2 15/1. Other expenses of the match brought the total to £953/15/1, leaving a profit of £l2BO/0/5. From the first match in the M.C.C. team’s visit, which was With Wellington, and which was confined to one day, as a result of rain, the council received a profit of £416/13/8. The second Test, in Auckland, at which the total “gate” was £1504/10/8, yielded a net profit of £530/9/3. As a result of the wet weather in Wellington, the council collected £5OO on its “Pluvius’ insurance policies, but paid £393/4/6 in premiums on such policies foi* the tour.

The receipts in connection with the M.C.C. team’s tour aggregated £2777 3/4 The principal general expenditure was £895/10/3 in cost of transport, accommodation, entertainment, and management of the team, and the next largest item was the £393 4/6 in insurance premiums. The tour yielded a profit of £1422/10/5. It had been arranged that the Marylebone Cricket Club should take half of the profit, but the cost of exchange brought the New Zealand Cricket Council’s disbursement in this item to £843/15/-, leaving a net profit to the council of £578/15/5. Of this, £485 was distributed among the affiliated associations ,the lour major associations receiving £5O each and the 19 minor associations £l5 each. From all of the council’s financial operations during the year the surplus left to it was £253/19/7. These facts are extracted from the statement of accounts appended' to the report which the council’s Management Committee will submit to the annual meeting of the council, to be held in Christchurch on November 9. The report itself says that'the brief tour of the M.C.C. team was a great success; no former team from any country aroused such keen and general public interest. The committee expresses high appreciation of the friendly courtesy of the team’s captain, vice-captain, and joint-managers, its deep obligation to the M.C.C. and the Australian Board of Cricket Control for agreeing to the visit at great inconvenience to both governing bodies, and its gratitude to those English county committees which were good enough to do without the members of the team for one or two matches in the first week of May to enable the visit to take place. Mention is made of the Australian Board of Control’s acceptance of an invitation to send a team to New Zealand in February and' March, subject to the playing and financial conditions being satisfactory. The Management Committee has now taken up negotiations with the Board.

In a reference to Otago’s winning of the Plunket Shield, which was very popular and well -deserved, the committee gives great credit to F. T. Badcock, who was captain as well as coach of the Otago team. “Badcock’s influence and example,” it says, “were soon in Otago’s fielding and general keenness, and in the batting of the younger players, who were not afraid to hit the ball hard in front of the wicket.”