TEST CRICKET CAPTAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20519, 21 March 1930, Page 17

TEST CRICKET CAPTAIN.

ENGLAND'S DIFFICULTIES.

FENDER THE BEST LEADER.

BRITAIN'S OUTSTANDING BOXER,

BY J. N. SHERWOOD.

LONDON, Jan. 30. Australia at long last has made the plunge and selected her test cricket captain. We in England have been talking and writing about the event for weeks and in so doing probabjy forgetting the difficulties that are facing us when we come to find our leader. If A. P. F. Chapman reveals his true form with the bat this season before the tests start then our worries are ended, but should he not come up to expectations then the M.C.C. is going to be in a bigger quandary than Australia has been. I have seen every county skipper in England and with the exception of one there is not one whom I would wish to nominate. The exception is P. G. H Fender. I am, of course, excluding Chap man, who does not enter into the dis cussion. Fender is quite the best leader in England to-day and I think the test selectors know it, but for some reason, which Fender sooner or later may reveal, the M.C.C. will not have anything to do with him. Should Chapman by any chance be ruled out then it is just possible that public opinion will force those commanded with the picking of an England captain to honour Fender. Incidentally, Fender tells me that A. H. Gilligan, now in your country, is being mentioned in certain circles that carry considerable weight as England's possible skipper against the Australians. I hardly think, however, that this is likely to happen. Gilligan lacks experience. It may be held in far off New Zealand that England has no reason to worry when there are two such leaders as Jack White and Arthur Carr. But neither of these showed the flair for cap taincy against South Africa. In fact they both forgot all about certain bowlers in the team and this when South Africa's tail-end batsmep were making merry ai the expense of bowlers who had been taken off and put on time and again. Here in this country we have reason to believe that in Kid Berg we have a world's chamgjon. Unlike the majority of British champions, from Phil Scott downwards, Berg is not a tip-tap boxer. He is both a boxer and a fighter, which combination may have been developed through his many fights in the United States. You have only to look up the files of any newspaper to discover the number of British champions, who, haying fought their way to the top in Europe, have led our people to believe that they were potential "world-beaters." Under this belief they have got into the ring with American champions and the result in nine cases out of ten has been that they have been stripped to ribbons. Tommy Milligan, the pride of Scotland and Britain's champion, looked to have an even-money chance with Mickey Walker, but the Scot was only a boxer. He could not hit hard. And the American prepared to take all that Milligan could hand out, waded in and smashed Milligan's defence to pieces. The same fate overcame Roland Todd, one of the greatest defensive fighters England ever had. In Berg, however, it looks as though Britain has at last found a boxer who can also fight.