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Lyttelton Times, Volume LXII, Issue 7413, 2 December 1884, Page 4

Wk are glad to hear that the proposed trip of the Auckland cricketers next Christmas time is not yet definitely abandoned, and that, in consequence, a cricket tournament, in which Otago. Auckland and Canterbury may take part, is still within the bounds of possibility. A tournament of this sort would to a new departure in the hirtorv of New Zealand cricket.. Indeed, we ore not sure whether any! thing precisely like it has ever toon successfully carried out in the Octal uies. Some such successful experiment is admittedly wanted to revive thl somewhat waning fortunes of thw game throughout New Zealand generally, and in this Province in particular. As an example of this unfortunately non-progressive condition we have only to loot to the refusal ol the English cricketers to visit New Zealand this summer. This refusal was ostensibly due to a disagreement about the gate money terms offered to the Englishmen's agents in Dunedin and Auckland. But it may fairly be said to to really due to the backward state of the game in the Colony. The cricketers here are not gxxl enough to give us any chance of well contested or exciting matches with the Englishmen, therefore the public will not come to see the latter in sufficient numbers to make a professional tour pay. As we have before pointed out, more than once, our local players are not entirely to blame for this state of things. The fates have been very unkind to them. In Canterbury alone between 15 and 20 really good players have toon lost to the game during the last five or six years. Of the fifteen with which Mr Neilson beat Gregory’s Australian Eleven, only one player. Mr Ashby, we believe, has managed to escape being put on the retired list. Over and above the fourteen thus lost, we could mention other names such as those of the late much missed Mr Watson, Messrs Hartlaud.Budaey, Pocock, Beard, Turner, Bedmayoe and other useful performers. From Otago we bear this year of the departure of Messrs M'Neil and Harris, two men quite impossible to replace. Anyone who considers how small is the number of cricketers playing on good grounds here (and only from such can a representative eleven to recruited) will see at once that it is out of the question for vacancies like these to to replaced out of band. In Melbourne and Sydney fair cricketers are to to counted by the score; yet, if the names of those playing m the Victorian and New Booth Woles Elevens to examined, it will to found that the two Colonies still rely to a considerable extent upon those who represented them in 1879 and 1880. For ourselves, instead of wondering why Christchurch cricket has not goon ahead faster than it has, we confess our astonishment that it has held its ground at nil. That it has done so, may, we think, to set down to the possession of two unusually fine Kuuds. the establishment of Chaleo Cup matches, the encouragement given to cricket at Christ’s College, and the greater attention paid to younger players generally. Already the Junior Cup matches, though barely two months have passed since the series began, have begun to bear fruit in the increased interest shown by youngsters in, their Club contests, and the keener spirit with which they enter on their play. Three are the most hopeful Signs for the game’s future progress here that can to oonoeived, lor, though good cricketers are

not made in a day, it is the promotion! of feelings of fiealthy rivalry and] Mjmt da aarp* among boy players that 1 is the first and most ttnpoirtesit step towards making cricketers at all.