CRICKET VISITORS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22094, 27 April 1935, Page 12

CRICKET VISITORS

M.C.C. AND INDIA TOUR OF TEST PLAYERS MATCHES IN THE CITIES ASSISTANCE FROM AUSTRALIA [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] CHRISTCHURCH. Friday , In the 1935-36 cricket season an M.C.C. team will tour New Zealand and at the end of the 1936-37 season the M.C.C. test team will spend .from two to three weeks in the Dominion after its tour ; of Australia. Arrangements are also almost completed for a visit during the 1936-37 season of a team selected from India by the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, a brother of Duleepsinhji. '' These announcements were made at the half-yearly meeting of the New Zealand Cricket Council to-night by Mi'. A. T. Donnelly, chairman of the management committee.

Matches in Australia

Mr. Donnelly said although the Australian Board' of Control had been very friendly during the past season, it had not been possible to secure a tour of New Zealand by an Australian side. Arrangements had now been definitely concluded, however, for a visit to New ' Zealand in the 1935-36 season by an M.C.C. team. The Australian Board of Control had very generously agreed to give this team five matches in Australia on its way to New Zealand, in •the same way as it had done when Gilligan's team visited New' Zealand in 1929. r . The M.C.C. team would be of similar strength, he expected, to the team that Gilligan led. Its personnel would be announced in the middle of the winter and it was expected that the side would be a most attractive one. The Australian Board of Control had again agreed to give the New Zealand Council a percentage of the gate-takings at the Australian matches, which would be against Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Test Tour Shortened It was also extremely gratifying, Mr. Donnelly added, that the M.C.C. and Australian Board of Control had agreed that the next test team to visit Australia in the 1936-37 season would come to New Zealand in March. To do this the Board of Control had agreed to close the Australian tour a week earlier than usual, and that would allow the Englishmen to be in New Zealand for two or three weeks. It was hoped that the team would be able to play in each of the four main centres in that time. Arrangements for the visit of the team selected from all India by the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar in the 1936-37 season, had been practically confirmed, although it was not absolutely definite yet. The team suggested would be a most attractive one, and would include probably several prominent English players. Several members of the council congratulated the management committee on the report presented by Mr. Donnelly. It would provide the Dominion with a good measure of interest from overseas teams. The success 'of the negotiations was«to a large extent the outcome of the fine work of Mr. Donnelly and Mr. A. Sims, the New Zealand representative in England.