C. C. DACRE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20290, 24 December 1927, Page 12

C. C. DACRE.

IMPORTATION OF TALENTED CRICKETERS. GLOUCESTER’S REPLY TO MAILEY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 11. Arthur Mailey did not know much about the facts when he likened Gloucestershire's action in taking C. C. Dacro from New Zealand to “ taking a biscuit from the baby,’ 1 comments the Weekly Despatch. A member of the Gloucestershire County Committee remarked: “ Dacre’s father had associations with the county, and when playing at Cheltenham last summer Dacre stated that as he thought of settling in England he would like to play for Gloucestershire. Ail the committee of the County Club has done is to say that u he settles within its borders it is willing to assist him to qualify. That is a very different thing from offering him an engagement sufficiently tempting to forsake his own country, as has been don e in the case of other players from the overseas dominions.” ATTRACTIVE CRICKET.

Our cricket people always seem to be in trouble, and the qualifying of C. C. Caere, of New Zealand, as a player for Gloucestershire is raising quite a little storm, writes “ H.A.H.C.,” in the Evening News. Arthur Mailey declares that almost every member of an Australian team has been asked to play for English counties.

“ I think,” continues the British commentator, ” most of us will be glad to hear this last bit of news; it does suggest that the secretaries of our county clubs are able to recognise cricketers when they see them in the field, and that they are alive to the fact that attractive cricket means big gates. It is not difficult to imagine that the popularity of Hammond’s type of cricket is largely responsible for the offer to Dacre. REGRET,- BUT !

” We are none of us very firm in our minds about this importation of talented cricketers Theoretically, we all regret it. We feel that every ready-made colonial player who comes over here does an Englishman out of a job, and we do not like it; but, although we are convinced that Lancashire would be nearer fifth than first in the championship table without Macdonald’s assistance, we still turn up on every possible occasion to see him bowl.

•‘This qualification of imported players may be quite wrong, and quite indefensible, but if Dacre is going to play for Gloucestershire, I, for one, shall want to see Gloucestershire bat; and if Charles Macartney should choose to play for Rutlandshire, I am sur e a good many 01 us would visit the county ground at Oak. hem (if there is one). “ I know that there are many parochial enthusiasts who consider that first-class cricketers born outside some dozen English counties should be shut out of the game as far and as long as possible, but at the risk of offending them I must say that my belief is that first-class cricket is dependent on the money it earns, and the way to earn that money is to attract that large section of the public who appreciate the more obvious features of the game. „ THE WINTER BAZAAR.

“ Cricket can just exist at the present moment, through the subscriptions of the people who understand the game and the pecuniary assistance afforded by an influ-entially-attended winter bazaar. If it is to flourish, it needs a wider appeal. “ The truth of this cricket business is very evident, and this statement of Arthur Mailny goes far tn prove it. Me in England have more money for cr.cket than the rest of the world put together, and yet we ar R being starved of mc.cet. There is no 'reason why we should not see more of colonial cricketers 'ur'.ig cur summer, and no reason w-hy -stiglishiiieu should not play through an Australian sea-mu \V e should not bo very liv vy losers if all the qualification business was swept away and some system of seasonal engagements substituted for it. PLAYERS HAVE THE REMEDY.

“To sum up the whole situation. England pays the best money and wants the best cricket. Me arc all anxious and Pacer to see it provided by Englishmen, but it is up to English players to provide cricket that will leave no loophole for the stranger to creep in to our games.because he is so much more worth watching-

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