THE CRICKET INCIDENT

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8289, 18 September 1903, Page 3

THE CRICKET INCIDENT

A writer in the Sunday Times, of August 9, says:—'A week ago or so I remarked upon the want of wisdom of Mr Warner in entering upon the discussion raised upon his appointment of, captain by the M.C.C. to the team for Australia. 'The force of my remarks are made apparent bv what has recently appeared concerning tile incident in connection with Lord Hawke's team in New Zealand, of which Mr Warner was captain. The incident caused .unpleasantness at the time, but it -was agreed that it should be forgotten. The temptation to reopen the subject proved too. great for Mr Warner, and the result is that his statement of the case has brought from Christchurch a letter which must at least make Mr Warner regret that he did not keep to "the resolution he made while on colonial soil. To have Mr A. Sims pointing out 'a few of the errors and misrepresentations appearing in his only correct version that has yet appeared in print' in a letter which bears the stamp of honesty and straightforwardness, cannot be particularly pleasant to the Middlesex captain. There is always a danger in trying to explain away a fault which should never have been committed. Whatever happened to the ball which was the cause of the incident, there can be no disputing the fact that the appeal by Mr Sims W26 perfectly in order, and that as neither umpire was in a position to give a decision, it was right for the game to proceed as if nothing had happened. In all this the laws of cricket were absolutely obeyed ; and it was then, and then finally, that the incident should have closed. The disappointment —one of the many constantly occurring in cricket—should have been borne with in che proper spirit, the spirit in which Mr Sims has couched his letter, and which has induced him to remark at the end that 'in spite of what has happened, we would prefer to retain the traditional respect for English sportsmen in which we have been trained and bred. That we have ever had any doubt about the value of this tradition is due solely to the conduct of certain members of Mr Warner's team, and that we have not yet succeeded in drawing a veil over the incident is due to Mr Warner himself."