THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF CRICKET.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIX, Issue 13066, 4 March 1903, Page 6

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF CRICKET.

The revival of interest in cricket which has resulted from the visit of the English, (cam is doubtless good in itself, bub we trust it will lend also to some practical measure.-? for the encouragement of tilio game. Wc arc being advised on all sides how to catch our cricketers young, - and obviously if our men are to excel in any sphere of activity they must be taught and trained from their youth. The young athlete has vigour and strength, but ho,needs also the knowledge that cornea only of experience. Of course we did nob need Mr Warner to tell us this. For many y ears Mr W. H. Wynn-Williams, with his finoenl&usiasm for the game, has been endeavouring, with some success, to discover good material in the public schools, and his own club, the Midland, has drawn a considerable amount of its strength from, the ranks of school boys. But one club cannot “work” the whole district. Wo should like to see the other clubs and the local Association moving in the same direction. Mr Reese and Mir Sims, perhaps the mo>t successful of our representative cricketers, were “ discovered,'” if we mistake not, in their'school days, and owed their early successes, at any Tate, to the coaching of tiheir seniors. The Associations all through the colony must be ” in funds ” now, and the best use to which, they can put their money is surely to .obtain expert coaching for the youngest generation of cricketers. It is really better ,

that this revival of interest should hava' come at the end of 'the season than at th« beginning, for now preparations can ba made to put tho lessons we have learnt into! practice next summer. A manly game,) ■which! is played for its own sake, is not without its value in building up a nation,, and the keener and harder it is played, tha more determined the players are to suo-e ceed, the greater its general moral value.: There, of course,' ti.ro the commonplaces c£ the philosophy of sport, bub it is just aS well to remember that sport has, its phiU osopby, its moral and ethical lessons,, so that the public may feel 'that in eacourag* ing cricket and similar games they are not spending their energies and their substance entirely in unprofitable directions.