NEW ZEALAND CRICKET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22826, 10 March 1936, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND CRICKET

If the melancholy exhibition by the New Zealand team in the first of the four indecisive matches, unofficially described as test matches, against the M.C.C. team be forgotten, the favourable comment which the captain of the visitors has made on the standard of cricket in the Dominion may perhaps he accepted as not unduly flattering. In the matches which were played in the northern centres the New Zealand team did unquestionably ' acquit itself satisfactorily and in two of them had a reasonable prospect of victory if the play had not been restricted in each case to three days. < As the M.C.C. team ’ was not only by no means a weak team, but was in fact one of the strongest, while it was certainly the most popular, of the English teams that have visited New Zealand, the result of these unofficial test matches, viewed as a Avhole, would seem to justify the commendation which Mr Holmes lias expressed upon the quality of our cricket. Moreover, it is not to be forgotten that in the case of none of these matches was the selection of the New Zealand team beyond cavil. The M.C.C. team has, in the judgment of its captain, found that there is “ a wealth of batting talent”' in the Dominion. Unfortunately there was no proof of this in the unofficial test match at Carisbrook, played though it was on a perfect wicket. But there is a weakness in the bowling in New Zealand. We might not conclude this from the scores which the M.C.C. team made against it, the match at Dunedin being again excluded from consideration, but still it is to be recognised that the deficiency exists, not merely, it may be suggested, in respect of spin bowling but also in respect of fast bowling—particularly, however, in respect of spin bowling because it was upon spin bowling that Australia depended very largely for her victories in this season’s tour in South Africa. Provided this deficiency can be rectified, as to some extent it may be with practice, and provided that the bowling is adequately supported in the field, then New Zealanders are, encouraged to believe that when their team visits England next year it may meet with a fair measure of success. The visit this season of the M.C.C. team, composed of men whom it has been a pleasure for their opponents to meet, must have been of value in giving to cricketers in the Dominion, who, have had the opportunity of playing against it, a confidence which should be destructive of any fear in future that they may show less than their true form.