Next Cricket Tests

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6943, 24 June 1929, Page 4

Next Cricket Tests

AUSTRALIA’S CHANCES GOOD

Oldfield Expects Much From Colts

W. A. Oldfield, Australia’s wicketkeeper, who, with his wife, is on his way to England on a honeymoon tour, was prevailed upon at Colombo to say something about Australia’s chances in the Tests in England next year. Those chances are good, declares the optimistic little ’keeper. In the recent Test matches, Old- ~ field said, England W. A. Oldfield admittedly had the better side on the whole, although the first two Tests did not convey correctly Australia’s strength. The accidents to Gregory and Ponsford were very unfortunate, and weakened the side considerably. Still, they were blessings in disguise, for they provided the opportunities that the young men were waiting for. Had Arthur Mailey not decided to retire, Australia would have pressed England much closer. Oldfield paid high tributes to Duckworth, who “kept magnificently”; Jack Hobbs, “still the greatest in the world on all kinds of wickets”; and Walter Hammond, "the greatest English batsman discovered since Hobbs,” and “a prodigy on our wickets." Speaking of the Australian side, Oldfield said that in Woodfull they had one of the greatest batsmen Auutralia has ever produced. “Ho will soon be getting into double figures in centuries in the Tests, like Hobbs,” Oldfield declared. “Jack Ryder made a capital captain, and is sure to be our leader on the next tour, with Woodfull as his lieutenant. Bradman,

Jackson, a’Beckett, Wall and Fairfax are all practically certainties. “We have at least a dozen more from whom the rest of the side should be hard to pick, as they are all of about equal merit,” he said. "I expect the 1930 side to be stronger than the last one, even though we shall not have Bardsley, Macartney, Gregory and Mailey; but I expect much from the younger men. You know what Bardsley, Woodfull and others did on their first tour. Really, I am most optimistic regarding our chances of recovering the ashes next year.”