THE LATEST WISDEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23034, 11 May 1938, Page 24

THE LATEST WISDEN

PUBLICATION FOR 1938 NEW ZEALAND INTERESTS Although summer in New Zealand has given way to winter and cricket to football, there will still be a warm welcome for the 1938 edition of Wisden, which has recently arrived from England. The famous cricketers' almanack appears in a new-form. Bindi'lg. type and make-up have all been changed and, although old features which made Wisden the cricketer's Bible have been retained, many new points which have been included add to the value and interest of the publication.

New Zealand cricketers will take a special interest in this year's edition, owing to the fact that it records the performances of the Dominion team in England last year. Concerning the play of the New Zealand side, the editor, Mr. Wilfred H. Brookes, a particularly sound judge of the game, does not indulge in any false flattery. It would he a mere pretence, he says, to state that the team fulfilled expectations, and probably the New Zealand players themselves would he the first to agree with him. Mr. Brookes gives high praise to the batting of M. W. Wallace and M. P. Donnelly and to the bowling of Cowie. If Cowie had been an Australian, he says, he might have been termed a wonder of the age. It is somewhat surprising to find that no member of the New Zealand team is included among the five cricketers of the year whose portraits are published in Wisden. Those selected 011 this occasion are T. W. .J. Goddard (Gloucestershire), .T. Hardstaff (Nottinghamshire), L. Hntton (Yorkshire), J. H. Parks (Sussex) and E. Pavnter ((Lancashire). On the two previous occasions 011 which New Zealand teams have visited England R. C. Blunt and C. S. Dempster were honoured by being included among the five cricketers of their respective years and it was thought that on this occasion a similar distinction might have been conferred on either Wallace or Cowie—more particularly Cowie. whose performances in England were probably the best recorded overseas by anv cricketer representing New Zealand.