CRICKET VISITS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22878, 5 November 1937, Page 13

CRICKET VISITS

TEAMS FROM OVERSEAS DOMINION'S DIFFICULTY , ; . / COMMERCIALISATION OF GAME THE ONLY AMATEUR COUNTRY [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION*] CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday "New Zealand, really the only amateur cricketing country extant, is of no importance in the cricketing world at present, and. we have to do everything by negotiating. It is not the same position as in the Rugby world, where New Zealand can hold her own with any other country/' said Mr. A. T. Donnelly, chairman of the management committee of the New Zealand Cricket Council, at the biennial conference of delegates to-day. "The game has become so commercialised that it looks as if it will be very hard to get another English team to the Dominion, and next to impossible to get an Australian side—costs arc so high and receipts are very low," Mr. Donnelly continued. "We must try, however, to get more teams away to England and Australia, as batting in New Zealand has improved out of all knowledge since the tours of England have been begun. "In England a Dominion side can give any county side a very good game, but in Australia the position is different, where States such as New South Wales and Victoria are as strong as half of England."

Mr. Donnelly said the cost of the first tour to England was about £4500 and the tcJur in 1931 had cost £I4OO more than had been received. The loss on the present tour, if the team had come straight back instead of going to Australia, would have been less than £IOOO, and it all depended on 'whether the "gates" were good in Australia for the council to break even. They were big losses, he said, bjut the council could stand them every six or seven years. They wanted to get an Australian team to New Zealand every two or three years in February and March after the Sheffield Shield games were finished. MR. DONNELLY'S RETIREMENT SERVICES TO THE GAME [by telegraph—owx correspoxdext] CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday "It was with great regret that the Wellington Cricket Association learned that Mr. A. T. Donnelly had decided to retire from the management committee of the New Zealand Cricket Council," said Mr. C. Bell, Wellington delegate, at the biennial conference of delegates to the annual meeting of the Cricket Council to-day. "Mr. Donnelly has been on this committee since he was 21 years old, and has been chairman for the last 10 years."

Mr. Bell said that the Wellington Association had circularised other associations and it had been unanimously and spontaneously decided to give Mr. Donnelly a present from the cricketers of the Dominion as a token of their respect for him and as an acknowledgment of what he had done for cricket in the Dominion. They had decided to give him a tall standing clock. Mr. Donnelly said that he was retiring as he thought the position of chairman of the management committee was one which should change hands. What time and trouble he had put into the game had been more than repaid by the very good progress the game had made in New Zealand. He was very grateful to the other members of the committee for the way they had worked harmoniously with* him, and also to the officers of the associations and minor associations. His knowledge and contacts with persons overseas would always be available to his successors.