Sporting Sprints.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 72, 26 July 1912, Page 13

Sporting Sprints.

A World's Cricket Eleven.

WARNER'S SELECTION

THUMPER AND HILL LEFT OCT

'File "Westminster Gazette" of May 23 contains the following interesting article, contributed by P. F. Warner, which is of exceptional interest to cricket lovers:—

"In a season when England, Australia, arid South Africa are engaged in fighting for the cricket supremacy of the world, it may, perhaps, be interesting to select a world's eleven. As a rule the choice of bowlers is a selection committee's first consideration, and tho first two bowlers we shall ebooso are Barnes and F. R. Foster. Jfinor bowling than theirs on hard, true wickets during the recent tour in Australia I have never seen. Barnes is the greatest bowler in the work! today, and we may go further and add that a greater bowler never lived, while Fester is the best of his type, with a natural, unforced action, ami the power of making the ball go very quickly olf the ground. Foster ami Barnes form a great contrast to each other, and both possess tremendous concentration and determination, invaluable assets in a bowler. Our other bowlers shall be-H. V. Hordern, of Australia, tho best googly bowler ofthe present time, with a wonderfully good length to back up his deceptive break; G. A. Faulkner, of South Africa, another bowler of the. Bosanquet school; W. \V. Armstrong, of Australia, a most accurate leg-break bowler; C. G. Macartney, of Australia, a comparatively easy bowler on a good Wicket, but difficult on false turf; and as our fast bowler, we shall select J. B. King, of Philadelphia.

"Does someone suggest W. Brcarley!-' Well, he is of course a tine bowler, tut ho is neither the batsman nor the fielder King is, and the latter in his day was one of the greatest fast bowlers the world has ever seen —one in the same as Richardson and Jjoekwood. H. V. Hordern once told wie that he thought King was the best bowler he had ever seen, and it is certain that with his great pace, tremendous swerve from the off, good length, and power of adaptability, King was a Most difficult bowler to tackle. Had he been an Englishman or an Australian. be would have bi :n a great figure in international cricket. \Vc now have Barnes, Foster, ffordern, Faulkner, 'Armstrong, Macartney and King, and all of these are batsmen of various degrees of skill. Faulkner one of the first live or six best in the world; Armstrong very sound; Macartney very brilliant, a sort of pocket Trumper; and Foster a natural batsman; wlnle Hordern is a good defensive player; King a fair batsman ; and Barnes can bat, though we shall not ask him to make runs, as we want him to bowl. Whom shall we have as wiekotkoeperP Their name is legion. In England, gtrudwick, Smith (E. J.), Huish, Muriel!, while Australia has Carter, the •best wicket-keeper that country h.ss produced since Blackham, and South Africa has Shenvoll. Our choice will fall on the South African. He is n groat wicketkeepor, perfectly quiet, with an entire absence of fuss, but he scarcely ever misses a catch, and his stumping is as good as his catching. Much practice has made him the best 'taker' of googly bowling in the world Also he made one of tho best- hundreds I have, ever seen against England at Lord's in 1907. "We have now plenty of bowling and a wicket-keeper, and we will complete tho team with C. B. Fry, R. If. Spoon«r, and Hobbs, the threo best batsmen m England. Tho order of going in shall be:— 1. C. B. FRY (England). 2. HOBBS (England). 3. G. A. FAULKNER (South Africa). 4. R. 11. SPOONER (England). 5. W. W. ARMSTRONG (Australia) 6. C. G. MACARTNEY (Australia). 7. F. R. FOSTER (England). 8. P. W. SHERVYELL (South Africa). 9. J. IS. KING (Philadelphia). 10. H. V. HORDERN (Australia). 11. BARNES (England). "It will bo seen that Engla.nd has five representatives in Fry, Spooner, Foster, Hobbs, and Barnes; Australia three in Armstrong, Ivlaca-rtnoy, and Hordern; and SontL Africa two in Uhcrwell and Faulknor. "For twelfth mar. the.ro are many Wndidates—Trumper, HilK, WooJlcy, Rhodes, Tarrant, «t'c, and many might prefer Trumper in the actual team to ULrmstrong, seeing that w« already have

two leg-break bowlers in Fiord*™ a«id Faulkner; but we want as much bowling as wo can get t-o meet all eventualities on a hard wicket, and Armstrong on certain wickets is still a must , useful bowler. On a slow wicket, how- , ever, I should play Trumper instead' lof Armstrong and put him No. .'3. soI that the order need not bo altered. There are seine who iiuiy before (i>::scason have doithtod the wisdom of including iVlacarhiey, hut lie is <* all-round eriekoter, and certainly one. of the finest fioidsm-cn in the, world. Willi linn at mid-olf, Spnnr.er at extra cover and ll*tbbs at cover, not m;'.iii\ runs would get through tin; olf-sido nf the lioid. For slip fielder}- wv luiv<Faulkner, Trumper o,r AVrmst-iong, King and Foster, though with King howling not more than two slips would he required, as the Philadelphia!! swerveithe half in to rather titan away from the batsman. Our long-fielders win-n the slow J)owlers, e.g., Bnrdcrn. were on would lie Fry, Faulkner. Macartney or llobbs. Ba.rnes would generally be afc point. The slijjs may he open to some criticism, -and eerfjiinly not so Rood' either in combination.- or individual skill as A. C. AlaeLaron, R. E. Foster, A. O. Jones, and Bmund. and there is no long-held in the side like Hansford, whose ninnii;;.'.. picking up. dud throwing in are a positive del'irfht to behold; oni one cannot have everything, and (lie team as it stands is wonderfully strong in foal-ting and bowling and decidedly good in fielding. It may seen! curious to omit Trump*!*. if the wiVlct were ha-fd, find Hill irdm any world's eleven, and 18 months or two years ago one would riW'V halve dreamt of doing so, but on thei.r form against tho M.C.C. team Inst wintlor they would appear to have fallen of! from their previously great- standard.

"I do not know whether it is possible of arrangement, but before the end of this season T should like to see two matches—-CI) The World versus Tho Best, and (2) tho Winner of I he Triangular Tournament v. the. other two Countries. Wo may patriotically hope that England will win the CournanieiH. How interesting would he Engh-nul v. Australia and South Africa, and The World v. Tho Rest might Well be played at the Oval instead of Chanipiini County v. England, and it would be bettor still if an earlier date could be found. Perhaps the Scarborough authorities might consider the cptr-s! Urn. Given fine weather, one or both of these games would be most attract ive."