THE CRICKET TESTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23083, 8 January 1937, Page 6

THE CRICKET TESTS

It is impossible to suppose that any programme of broadcast items will be entirely satisfactory to all classes of listeners. It may be seriously doubted, however, whether the correspondents who have written to us complaining of the time that was devoted to the broadcasting of the test cricket match which was concluded at Melbourne yesterday are representative of more than a small minority of the possessors of radio sets. Probably they might not have felt aggrieved if the test cricket broadcasts had not been included in an extensive summary of sporting events of various descriptions during the past few days. The test match itself was one of a dramatic interest that not only attracted enormous crowds to the ground in Melbourne but must also have commanded the attention of many thousands of people who were gratified to have the opportunity of listening to the story of fragments of the play as told by 'the competent critics engaged by the Australian broadcasting authorities. The interest in the struggle flickered out' only when the score that was made by the Australians, through the. instrumentality of Bradman and Fingleton, on the fourth day rendered the result a foregone conclusion. The element of luck has entered very largely into these contests. On the balance, it has so far been distinctly more favourable to the English team than it has been to the Australians. In none of the three matches that have been played has the weather not exercised a potent influence on the game, if not actually on the result. In each case, as it happened, the side that secured the initial advantage of winning the toss enjoyed the additional benefit of being able to dispose of the opposing team in one of its innings on a wicket that had been severely damaged by rain. In circumstances such as these the value of the play, as a real test of the merits of the teams, is necessarily diminished. It will be regrettable if the fourth match of the series, which will be begun at Adelaide on January 29, is not contested under conditions that will afford a more convincing test than was furnished in any of the three that have so far been played.