IMPERIAL CRICKET.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10242, 3 September 1909, Page 2

IMPERIAL CRICKET.

ITS MEANING. EQUALITY, FRATERNITY, PROGRESS. (By Dr L. 0. S. Poidevin.) It is quite in accordance with the spirit of the times that cricket should be caught in the prevailing Imperial conference vortex. During the past few months England has been inundated with oversea representatives to Imperial conferences of all sorts and descriptions —press, political, commercial, educational, and social. Indeed, almost every self-respecting organisation has had its Imperial congress or conference. It is not surprising, therefore, that such an admittedly important Imperial influence as international cricket should fall into line also. But the cricket conference between representatives of England, South Africa, and Australia did" not owe its origin to an attack of the prevailing conference fever; it is, in fact, the natural outcome of the sequence of events during recent years in the cricket world. Perhaps, as the original proposer of the:conference, and one of the prime movers in its deliberations, my comments on the subject may be taken as essentially accurate and authothis article the raison d'etre, the scope, and the work of the conference, held more' than once at Lord's recently, in sufficient detail to be thoroughly intelligible, I hope, to my Australian friends.

Now, for a considerable period, as must be well known to all, there has been a certain amount of regularity about the visits of Australian teams to England. From the 1890 tour up to that of 1905 the visits were triennial. It was only a matter of custom that they were so. England was under no other obligation to Australia as regards the, invitations she sent to our players to tour England than those merely of convenience and custom. It was quite a convenient arrangement for England to have an Australian team playing for the "ashes" and engaging the ■countiocevery third year, because it gave two clear seasons for county cricket pursuits between each visitation. But it had never gone the length of a definite arrangement. There may have.been some in Australia, prhaps, who thought these visits too frequent,, but on the whole the triennial habit seemed to work out quite : satisfactorily. And it probably would have continued to do so but for the advent of a new competitor (South Africa) in the- international cricket arena. The South Africans, by their excellent play against England, became qualified in the opinion of the M.C.C. to be placed "oh the same international footing as Australia in the matter of interchange visits. As Australia had been coming to England every three years, _ so South Africa should receive triatrial invitations. England was prepared to treat" both rivals on an equality. Australia, of course, could not complain so long as no difference was made in her customary arrangements with England. Obviously, however, England's international obligations were doubled, and if the customary trienninl visitations: were persevered in it meant that England would have a visiting colonial team two seasons in every three"; in other words, only two clear seasons for county cricket would ensue. in every six years. Naturally England (i.e., the county clubs) felt that this was putting too much strain upon county cricket. The' counties desired, if possible, to have two clear seasons between colonial visitations. What then was '. to be done ? Either Australia and South Africa would each have to. be ?with a visit to England every six years, or they might, come to. England: in the same season every ;fchree yearSi There

was nothing much to commend the former idea, so the latter found most sup-port,-and it soon became elaborated into a workable scheme, to which a trial was proposed to be given in 1909. l'6r various reasons the scheme fell through for that year; so.the position remained as before—unsettled: _ It was one of the first objects then for the Imperial conference to devise some settlement which should, if possible, be permanent. Without further ado, I may say that at the last meeting of the members of the conference (Lord Harris and Lord Hawke representing England, H. D. G. LevesonGower and Abe Bailey South Africa, P. A. M'Alister and the writer Australi), a programme was agreed upon and will be submitted to the countries conoerned for definite approval. The programme provides for quadrennial Visitations;. Each country will pay a visit to and receive a visit from each other country oiice iii every four years, and the programme will repeat itself in cycles; Thus Australia s next turn to visit England would be in 1913, followed by another visit in 1917. South Africa's next turn would be in 1911. Provision, however, has • been made for a triangular contest in England in 1912. between England, South Africa, and Australia, feouth Africa has expressed its willingness, to defer her 1911 visit till the following year, and Australia, instead of coming in 1913, will be asked to. come a year earlier to give a trial to the triangular scheme. If the latter should not prove a success, financially or otherwise, in 1912, there will be no repetition of it, and a return will very naturally be made to the quadrennial series. If, however, it proved a great sucecss, there will be ample opportunity for fitting in a seond. contest at a later period without upsetting the quadrennial series as regards visits to Australia and South Africa. Thus England next visits Australia in 1911-12 season, and again in 1915-16, and so on. So much then for the programme. One should say proposed programme, because it has yet to be approved by the English counties, by the Australian Board of Control, and by the South African Cricket Association. The manner of carrying through thetriangular contest of 1912 naturally gave rise to a deal of discussion, but it is not necessary for me.to say anything on the subject now further than that the detaiis of. finance, etc., have all been provisionally settled, and set forth in a definite scheme, which will be submitted to the parties concerned in due course. . .. I The question-of apportioning the> gate I receipts was not settled along ''pooling the proceeds and equal division ' lines, but its solution is based upon the principle that each visiting country stands upon its own power to draw the crowd. Thus Australia takes no share in the South African matches with England, tior does South Africa in Australia's games against the Old Country. When South Africa meets Australia special arrangements will be made as regards the finances. The scope of the conference, including as it did everything concerning international cricket, naturally admitted of a pretty wide field for discussion, and a great variety of topics were introduced. One that carried a special interest was that concerning the qualification of players for test matches. The subject was settled in four rules as under:— 1. Test matches are those played between representative elevens of England and of Australia and, of South Africa) and., also between elevens of Australia aiid South Africa: 2. A cricketer who has played in a test match for one country cannot play for any other country without the consent o,f all the contracting parties. 3. Qualification by Birth.—-A cricketer, unless debarred by rule 2, is always eligible to play for the ..country of his birth.. 4. Qualification of Residence. A cricketer, unless debarred by rule 2, may elect to play for any country in which he has been residing and has resided for not less than the four years immediately preceding,, and thereafter shall always be eligible to play for that country. The conference has nothing much to recommend as regards the difficult question of payments to amateurs and professionals. That reasonable expenses should be allowed to amateurs was, of course, the.general feeling, but the conference evinced no desire to suggest the limitation of these . expenses. The interpretation of what is "reasonable" in the way of expenses, according to circumstances, could best be left to the parties concerned as a domestic detail. The appointment of umpires for test matches, which has given rise to a certain amount of dissatisfaction this summer, was carefully considered, and a rule framed so that each contesting party will in future have an equal voice in the appointments. There were several other matters of detail, including the hours of play and the taking of intervals, the procedure for which has been laid down for future guidance. On the whole, it must be admitted that the conference has got successfully through a.deal of useful work. Viewed broadly, it reflects the spirit of the times. The old idea embodied in the phrase "England, the mother; the colonies her children" is growing out of date. -The relationship is rather fraternal nowadays. We are all brothers, someg'bigger than others. Sport has beeriiS. great advertisement to the coloniesjfand cricket certain]}' the most influetftial.