BUSINESS SIDE OF CRICKET.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10505, 13 July 1910, Page 1

BUSINESS SIDE OF CRICKET.

(!?y Dr L. (.). 8. I'oideviii.)

The cable message iron: Sydney stating that' "the 1 visit, of a South African ;:ri(:kot 'tram to Australia next season is very doubtful'' carries no small amount til' interest 10 the cricket community in London. Ordinarily, of course, a series of matches bet'.veen Australians and South Africans is not iikly to prove 'wildly exciting, hut there are circumstances ensure for it a certain amount of in:-, portance in the hixtnrv of the j^aiiie. it wii! he the first lime that the South Afrleans mice iaeklod the Australians on their own ground, and will niovide, in addition, an opportuuif v to place \iithiu the sphere of practical polities the much donated question. ;;.<■ to what the "jiooj-lic'' will do <m Au.s----i radian wickets. it is. moreover, a concession to Australian opinion, which laid it (lovr:>. as one of she conditions for agreement to their takine: part in a triangular contest, in Kntdnnd that South Africa should lirst visit Australia. Originally ir .was intended that the South African team should visit .\ustraiia in the "latter liail' of the next Australian season—that is, after the Now Year, 'out lor .some reason or other attempts have recently luen made to arrange for a with the. short programme a couple of months earlier. .\o doiilit it is in connection with those arraiiiremenrs that the present hitch has occurred. One regards the hitch as a merely feinpornrv alfair, ami nothim;' more than a report: fV-rsoually I shall he very much surprised if the tour does not eventuate. Wo over here, of course, cannot pretend to know very much about the dih'ioukio.s tiiat may arise in arra sucli a tour, hut if, as i.s -stated in the cablegram, it is mereiv a matter of finance, the difficultv should soon settle itself' It would seem that tile South' African Association, ''after practically accept in y. the oli'er of oil per cent, of the Kate mid stand receipts, now asks for a guarantee of -CollllO."

On the face of it oil per cent, of the gate and stands seems an equitable enough arrangement- Australians, when in this country, accept 50 per cent, of the gate without any .shave at all in the stands. No doubt they think they .should have a share of the stand money, and that is perhaps the reason why they hare offered it to the South Africans. H is not at all likely, as the cable message suggests, that the Australian Board of C'oiurol will give a guarantee of fi.jOOO for a .short season. 'They will he very strongly averse from giving any guarantee at all such as has been suggested. They guaranteed the last M.C.C. team to visit Australia £'19,(100 for a tour extending over the whole' Australian season, and owing to the poor form shown by that team they had to make good about -£2600 of that guarantee. It is not likely that they will bo hitten in the same way again, especially as it has been suggested that one or two of South Africa's best players will not be able to make the trip to Australia.

Had the last English team to Australia played cricket of the class usually associated with such teams the guarantee would have been doubled by the takings. Their cricket, however, was very moderate and not at all tin? sort to attract Australian crowds, which; went to see something more than, th'cir' own men gaining easy victories. .if the South Africans play good cricket they can have nothing to fear from the financial arrangement which allows them half, the takings; and itwill he a better financial arrangement for them than the acceptance of a .CoOOO guarantee, Besides, as I have said. 1 do not think the Australian Board of Control > will give a- guarantee unless it first fully approves of the personnel of the visiting team. . Obviously, that .principle of "approval before guarantee" is not one likely to be encouraged or tolerated in connection with international Seams, no matter how just it may appear to he. The ".half proceeds" arrangement:, is essentially a fair one, and one that can easily lie made universal. One does not for a moment think that these negotiations will have any hearing on the triangular tournament other than to invest it with'the interest that must accrue from a series of stubborn fights in Australia between the colonial rivals —which at present seems to me the most likely outcome.