THE New Zealand Herald AND DILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1932 TEST CRICKET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21359, 7 December 1932, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1932 TEST CRICKET

I Even the proverbial uncertainty of cricket cannot be cited to gainsay i the fact that Australia has lost the first test match. At the drawing of stumps yesterday nine wickets had fallen in the homo team's second innings, with the Australian total only level with that of the English side in its first innings. One more Australian wicket to fall—and that the wicket of one or other batsman not chosen for his batting—then the Englishmen bat again with their ten wickets in hand : no cricket miracle, except in dreams, can come to the rescue of a plight like that. England notches its first victory in as determined an effort to recapture the "ashes" as was ever begun. It is no more than begun. Much may happen before the scries of games is played out. In the annals oE these contests have been recorded some wonderful changes of form and fortune, and in these changes it has been usually Australia, not England, that profited in the end. The ability to fight to a finish against odds, and especially to develop prowess as successive matches are played, is so well-known an Australian virtue that when this English team set out it was solemnly warned | to beware of presuming on any adj vantage gained early in the struggle. | It is safe to say that at the back jof English gratification over the { assured result of the first trial of | strength is an apprehension that I this capacity of recovery may again be proved. A prime essential in victorious cricket is a mind above under-rating an antagonist, whether he be batting or bowling, and this has to be carried throughout every game and group of games if the best is to be achieved. However carefree maybe the English eleven's resumption of this game to-morrow, the whole touring team will soon be telling itself—perhaps be told by counselling cables from the Old Land—that one victory does not make a successful campaign. As for the great interested public, it knows its cricket too well to think that the fate of the "ashes" is fixed by this first of the five games. There is a moral stimulus, of course, in the Englishmen's achievement, and—save for the famous Australian reaction to reverse —a moral setback: for those suffering at their hands. It may be that the home team went to the wickets under a sense of handicap because of the unfortunate circumstance that robbed them of their most brilliant batsman : Bradman's absence meant a probable loss of 200 runs, his own and those of others aided by his flogging of the bowlers, according to an English estimate o£ his worth to his side. In all games, this moral factor plays a part, and in none more than in cricket. Hence the advantage of a decisive win in the first match. But the "ashes" will not be won until they are lost, and the Avhole cricket world will be on tiptoe to see how the rest of the games go. Had Australia inflicted as convincing a defeat as it will inevitably suffer in this opening test, interest must have flagged a little. For the English team, in spite of the initial successes of its tour, met no adequate opposition until this match, and a failure in the opening game of the crucial group would have seriously damaged its prestige. It was chosen with unusual care. All England was intent through many weeks on the task of the selectors. In cricket procedure, it is really an M.C.C. team, for the practice is to have an invitation from the Australian Board of Control to the Marylebone Club ; but the International Board decides such matters as the membership of that club, for the purposes of these tests, in a way that allows the choice of what is in effect an All-England side. So the English public rightly views it, and this year there has been an interest. unprecedented in the Homeland as to the selectors' choice. "In every pavilion, in every railway carriage, in the press, in omnibuses, in clubs," says one experienced writer, "one of the topics of conversation overheard has been that of the English team." Advice has been showered on the selectors, with an earnestness eloquent of the widespread and deep concern that the triumph of the last visit from Australians should be wiped out.

That the selectors <li<l (heir work well, whatever may have been their deafness to volunteered counsel from all parts of the country, is agreed. In batting strength the team is exceptionally equipped, despite the loss through illness of the services of K. S. Duleepsin'nji ; its bowling presents a galaxy of talent, as varied as it is impressive; there is expert testimony that it is. a better fielding side than England has ever before sent abroad. These arc matters on which opinion may be expected to differ; but when all except three of a team arc known to be capable of run-getting, and pace and cleverness are well represented in a bevy of bowlers, while in the field there is certainty of much individual brilliance if not of all-round excellence, there is constituted a side of all the talents. By this time, it has proved to be so. A feature of the selection is its unusually large proportion of unpaid players, a fact that says much for the development of amateur cricket in the Old Land; and another interesting fact is the opportunity given to players relatively new to test cricket, although with Hobbs in the offing, available if need be, there is proof that this venturesomeness was not ready to risk too much. So the team has come "down under," to attack and defend .in deadly earnest, and the knowledge that it will be seen in this Dominion adds a special touch of zest to the interest with which its fortunes in the Australian tests are wholesomely followed..