TEST MATCH WICKETS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 10

TEST MATCH WICKETS

The question of protecting test match wickets from rain has again been raised, and Lord Somers, president of the Marylebone Cricket Club, says that it probably will give the matter serious attention, evidently in deference to the Australian " crowd," although he makes his own opinion quite clear when he affirms that ideal cricket, as they know it in England, is played on the village green irrespective of the elements. What is the reason for the agitation? Presumably to provide high-score batting to please the crowd which provides the funds. Thus we get to the old thorny question of commercialisation not only of the game but c;f the "ashes." But the very name of "ashes" implies not only the valuelessness of the symbol of victory but also of victory itself, if winning is given more importance than playing. The good-spirited struggle is the thing, not the result, though more and more, apparently, does interest hang on the outcome. True cricket is thus on the defensive. Its weather hazards ought not to be lightly modified. Those who oppose the covering of wickets to make them permanently fast may find strong arguments in the fact that, because of the increasing perfection of pitches aiding the batsmen, the size of wickets was increased and the new lbw rule was introduced. Further, a new rule passed in 1922 for Australia only, and extended to New Zealand in 1024, provides that in the event of rain falling after a match begins the wicket may be swept and rolled at the close of a day's play and before it commences, this in addition to the existing rules regarding sweeping and rolling. ( In the present agitation there may be a desire to reduce advantages that may be possessed by a side with the greater experience on soft wickets, but it would bo a sad day for cricket if it became so deadly serious that everything pertaining to what might be called "the rub of the green" were eliminated.