"OF NO IMPORTANCE"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23341, 5 November 1937, Page 13

"OF NO IMPORTANCE"

DOMINION'S CRICKET STANDING " New Zealand, the really only amateur cricketing country extant, is oi no importance in the cricket world at present, and we have to do everything by negotiating. It is not the same position as in the Rugby world, where New Zealand can hold her own with any other country." said Mr A, T Donnelly, chairman of the Management Committee of the New Zealand Cricket Council, at the biennial conference of "The game has become so commercialised." Mr Donnelly continued. " that it looks as if it will be very hard to get another English team to the Dominion, and next to impossible to get an Australia side. Costs are so high and receipts are very low. " We must try, however, to get more teams away to England and Australia, as the batting in New Zealand has improved out of all knowledge since the tours of England were begun," Mr Donnelly concluded. "In England a Dominion side can give any county a very good game, but in Australia the position is different, where States such as New South Wales and Victoria are as strong as half of England." Losses on Tours Mr Donnelly said the cost of the first tour to England was about £4500 and the tour in 1931 had cost £I4OO more than had been received. The loss on the present tour, if the team had come straight back instead of going to Australia, would have been less than £IOOO and it all depended on whether or not the gates were good in Australia for the council to break even. They were big losses, he said, but the council could stand them every six or seven years. They wanted to get an Australian team to New Zealand every two or three years, in February and March after the Sheffield Shield games were finished. Referring to the work done by members of the Management Committee Mr Donnelly said that any alteration in the scheme of controlling cricket in New Zealand was b-und to fail. There was before the crnlerence a suggested amendment of the Management Committee, brought forward by the Otago Association through its delegate, Mr A. H. Allen. The Otago Association's proposal was that "the Management Committee should consist of a resident delegate from each of the Auckland, Wellington, and Otago Associations, one delegate representing the minor associations of the North Island, one delegate representing the minor associations of the South Island, and

five members resident in Christchurch."" Under this committee there would be: an executive consisting of five Christchurch members, which would conduct all the routine business, the full'Management Committee to meet at least three times a year and confirm the executive's actions. " Utterly Impossible "^ " It is utterly impossible and imprac-' ticable to run cricket in New Zealand on these lines. Much of the work has to be done almost in secret and decisions have to be made without the slightest delay, so that it would be impossible to go hunting round the Dominion to find the president of an association to get his approval," said Mr Donnelly. He mentioned that in January February and March of this year he had written 350 letters himself and this was not including ones which the secretary had written. The business of the committee had occupied him for half an hour to an hour every, morning of the week. % Other members of the Management' Committee endorsed these remarks and, as there was no -remit before the meeting, the discussion afterwards lapsed.