Who Gets Balls Used in Cricket Test Matches?

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6853, 7 March 1929, Page 4

Who Gets Balls Used in Cricket Test Matches?

Four are “Fair Game”for Players REST TO ASSOCIATIONS Where do flies go in the wintertime? This question has nothing on that equally provocative one: Where do test match cricket balls go after they have been used? rpHEY are in great demand as souvenirs, and the 'different State cricket associations are like greyhounds after a hare for them, writes Claude Corbett in the Sydney “Sun.” The only balls the players are entitled to seize are those which end an innings. Therefore, there are only four which the players have a chance of getting. POCKETED BY UMPIRES During the progress of a match the other balls which go out of commission when each 200 runs have beep scored, are pocketed by the umpires. They usually return them to the association secretaries. Where they go then is not known. The fuss about balls started in Brisbane, where one of the umpires lost track of one. A search party was organised, and much to the relief of everybody, the ball was tracked to Its lair. So it has been in Adelaide, but the officials are all smiles, as every ball has been accounted for. The Englishmen took charge of the stumps and bails at the end of the match there, and the secretary, Mr. Jeanes, is going to have a man-sized job if he desires to run their captures to earth. The Victorian Cricket Association is getting in early for the fifth test. The umpires have been written to informing them that every ball, with the exception of those which end an innings, must be handed to the secretary, Mr. H. Brereton. Woe betide anybody who dares approach an umpire for a ball as a souvenir. Ho will be shot on sight,