CRICKET FINANCES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23149, 22 September 1938, Page 24

CRICKET FINANCES

NEW ZEALAND'S DIFFICULTY FUNDS FOR OVERSEAS TOURS -[from our own correspondent] ■ : ' ' LONDON, Sept. 1 Secrets of. the financial difficulties with which intercolonial cricket tours have been fraught were revealed by R. C. Blunt, former New Zealand player, and now a member of Sir Julien Cahn's team, at the Rotary Club luncheon in Nottingham. He recalled the time when New Zealand first proposed to follow the example of Australia and send a 'team to England in 1927. Something likp. £3OOO of a total of £9ooo'was required before the New Zealand Council could begin to think of sending a team, and the money was raised by floating a company without a guarantee of the result. The team came to England rather nervously, he said, with only one member who* had any experience of English cricket —Tom Lowry—who captained the side. He was one <pf the finest captains there had been in 20 years, and it- was he who brought them so successfully through the tour, during which only five matches were lost. The tour was .not a success financially, but, although the shareholders of the company were only paid out at the rate of 15s in the pound, everybody seemed well pleased. Another side was scheduled to visit England in 1931, when conditions throughout the world were at their lowest ebb. It was not possible to repeat the first method of raising money, and several wealthy people were approached. Tho earthquake intervened, so again a lottery was choson. *Blunt said that, while an Englishman played a game because he enjoyed it, a colonial began with that idea and, if he found he excelled, devoted his entire energies to it. In Australia they took the game terribly seriously, and the same thing had happened in New Zealand with regard to Rugby. He did not think that New Zealand would ever come up to the Australian standard of cricket. Players could not afford the time nor the money, and in the majority of cases they could only devote their holidays to the pursuit of the game. - In first-class cricket the teams had to travel as much a's 1000 miles to play a match. There was nothing to compare with English county cricket and the white population was only 1,500,000. In addition, the towns were set so far apart that it was only possible for the teams to meet once a year.