AFTER THE TESTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 257, 12 October 1934, Page 15

AFTER THE TESTS

AUSSIE CRICKET TOUR Visit Well Worth While CEMENTING OF FRIENDSHIPS I have said that winning the Ashes does not count for everything, and that cricket 1* rarely a means of cementing friendships, said Mr. Harold BuMhby, manager of the Australian cricket team, In an interview with the “Daily Mail.” Let us think of that now that the tumult and the shouting have died down, I suppose up to now over 2,000,000 people have seen the Australians at play during this 1934 tour. Ours was a mission of friendship as well ns cricket, and we feel we have made many friends among those millions. You are bound to get different opinions and different points of view. Sometimes in the excitement ef the moment feelings run high among partisans. That is perhaps neither unhealthy nor uninteresting, and Jet us hope all is well again after the steam has blown off. I feel I can say that with regard te our relations with the people here. You ask me about the tour. One of the difficulties about big Cricket is the cost. I mention this because people who sometimes talk about the “commercialisation’’ of sport overlook this fact. A BUSINESS BASIS. Take our case. It costs many hundreds of pounds a man to come over here. Then there are the costs ef administration and of organisation years ahead. In the absence of millionaire* to make a hobby of finding the funds, things have to be run on a business basis. The profits, here an<J in Australia, all go to support cricket organisations and keep them on the sound financial basis which is necessary I have had letters suggesting that the Tests should be stopped because they make for misunderstandings and difficulties. Let’s be sensible. Since when have the British-—and don’t forget we in Australia are 98 per cent. British stock —been against settling their family troubles amieably! Since when have we felt it to be the thing to emphasise and tell the world our differences! Since when have we ceased to recognise our community of interests! That reminds me of something It was wonderful when we met the King. It was on that occasion that all of us realised to the full the kinship of all us British. It’s something I can’t explain logically, this unifying influence Of the Throne, but it is something we Aus-f tralians seemed actually to feel when we went to Windsor Here was a personality of us, and yet detached from us, transcending all geographical and social differences. AT HOME. We did feel at home. I think the King made our boys feel as If Windsor Castle belonged to them—the goodhumoured way in which he talked to us and invited ue to go round, and allowed us to take pictures of himselff and the Queen. We got something of that same feeling of kinship when we went to Aidershot the other day. I’m glad we played that match against the Army. It was good to meet the young warriors, descendants of the fellows with whom our own lads fought side by aide during the Great War. The bombing aeroplanes overhead as we played, the troops lining the ropes, made some of us think hard—l mean of the things you in England have to keep in mind and which seem so remote sometimes to many of us 12,000 miles away In Australia. We have seen a lot of England this tour. It would be invidious to pick out the “high spots.” We hav* enjoyed tbo countryside and the lanes of which we read so much down under. Wo have met all sorts of people, in mansions, in suburban homes, in villages, iu spas, and in industrial towns. Everywhere we Late been impressed with the vigour and confidence of the people. NOT DECLINING. The tales we have heard of a declining, spent England are rubbish. On the face of things, the people are generally happy and prosperous. We will go back to Australia full of tidni|ira j tion for the way the nation is fighting through, and with renewed faith in the destiny of the race to which we all Irelong. Other things that have impressed ue are the great development of motor transport here; the vast improvements in the country hotels; the road-houses, and swimming pools, which seem to mark n change of social habile; and, of course, London—wonderful London. I there any place in the world that has its lure?

Some of the newcomers have been surprised in their travels at the spaciousness of Englund. They thought Australia was the land of open spaces and seemed to expect to find nil England a land of next-door neighbours.