CRICKET FAMILIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20740, 6 December 1930, Page 18

CRICKET FAMILIES.

FAMOUS ENGLISH PLAYERS. FATHER'S GREAT INFLUENCE. COACHING AND PERSONALITY. 7/ BY GEORGE GUNN. Kumar Slin Duleopsinliji, whose batting has recalled the fents of his uncle, the Janp Sahib of Nawanagar, is another example of the way in which cricketing talent runs in families. The Graces and the Walkers stand out in England. In the Gregory family are equally renowned.' I would like to make a team of representatives of cricketing families, and pit them against the rest. For professionals we could start with tho Ucarnes, the Tyldesleys, and the Tates, three families that come at once to mind as having active players in the field to-day. There is one Nottinghamshire family of cricketers whom I will not mention, and, without any effort, most devotees of the game could name many sons of cricketing fathers playing now in both amateur and professional ranks There are two possible explanations of dickering families. They have cricket "born in them," or their ability may be the result of early training. My earliest recollections of the game are of family cricket, and, although there is often a remarkable similarity of style between relalives of cricket, 1 do not think that this is entirely inherited. 1 am inclined to attach more importance to early training. It?'is marvellous what you can make of a youngster if you set him to a game eaily enough, and start him 011 the right lines. Training ol Boys. There is one danger in this, as far as cricket is concerned. Cricket is not quite so much a game of stroke production as some, others. 1 have seen many a lad who had "all the strokes," but would never make a cricketer. Cricket has to he' brought out of a boy not diummed into him. You can insist on having a youngster bowl a length, Ihat is well and good, but afterwards he must do something of his own.Fred Root would never have perfected the leg trap if a misguided parent had tol'd him that, because nobody had ever made a ball "break that way,.before, he certainly wasn't to attempt anything of the sort. Ancf can you imagine" any father encouraging C. V. Grimmett to learn to bowl googlies with an orange in his bedroom- —at a disastrous cost in mar-tei ornaments ? No, fathers are a great advantage, but/they can have limitations unless they keep their youthful enthusiasm for tho game. , , It/is a regrettable fact that some of the most popular of batsmen wield a wickedly crooked bat. I don't say that helps their cricket. In'fact, I know it doesn t, hni I do feel that thoughtless words about that crooked bat too early in life might have taken their pleasure out of cricket. You must get pleasure out of a game to play it well, and to get pleasure you must have a bit of your own way. Encouragement to Hit. That is tho way 1 always work when coaching. There are some coaches who will not encourage a boy to hit. They want to see him stroke-perfect before they let him "have a go." I say that, after a voung batsman has been through liis lesson, he should be allowed to feel just once or twice what it is like to liring the wood to a loose ball. My recipe lor the making of a great cricketer is early training, correct technique—then personality. A man who goes to the wickets and looks like most other people who go to the wickets starts'with a disadvantage at'once, just the same as—in an exactly opposite way—the fast bowler who has a terrifying run starts with an advantage, always assuming that he does not expend top much energy on tho terrifying business, and not enough on the ball. 1 found out fairly early that if you have a way of your own at the wickets you have a better chance of having your own way •with the bowlerS.

There are .many ways of facing bowlers. You can be excessively confident, you can he .unduly cautious. You can be agpresnivb. .You can be friendly but firm. You can take it as a great joke, whether you hit six, or are nearly bowled out. You can pretend that you didn't really intend to hit a ball when you miss it, and that an unexpected snick through the slips is really your favourite stroke. Myself, I favour the keenest concentration, but not necessarily the showing of it. In -batting, i* is good policy to refuse to be dominated; know just how good the bowling really is, but don't let the bowler see you do.