4-DAY TESTS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16946, 30 January 1926, Page 11

4-DAY TESTS.

WARNER'S ADVOCACY. PICKING ENGLAND’S XL LONDON, Jan. 15. Mr. P. P. Warner, the former English captain, speaking at the Middlesex Club’s annual meeting, expressed the opinion that four-day Tests were bound to come. The meeting indicated its approval of suck an alteration. Interesting views on the formation of England’s Test Eleven are'supplied to the Daily News by a cricket expert, who writes: — “During the Australian visit in 102.1 England’s Test players were selected because they had cither made a century the previous week or hail taken a few wickets against a weak side, or else for no reason whatever. An attempt to pick a real team was made only prior to the last Test. “England’s captain should have the biggest say in the selection. English captains' have done best in Australia, where they are not handicapped by the crankiness of members of a selection committee who have a special fancy for certain players. “The bogey of giving the young idea a chance should not. deter the committee from picking a side able to win, even if its members are over 30 years of age. Another bogey is the importance of having no tail, by which specialists like bowler and a wicketkeeper would be discarded. This is wrong in a three-day match, in which a team including six sound batsmen would not be oeaten by the slow-batting Australians. But specialists might do more—they might snatch victory. An indifferent wicketkeeper but good bat might malto a hundred but miss several chances of catching and stumping.” The writer believes that live firstclnss batsmen, two all-rounders, three first-class bowlers, and a first-class wicket-keeper approximate the ideal side, which, should be picked from the best performers during May, from among the following: — BATSMEN. J. B. Ilobbs (Surrey), IL Sutcliffe (Yorkshire), P. Holmes (Yorkshire), E. Hcndrcn (Surrey), Hubert Ashton, A. W. Carr (Notts), A. P. R Chapman (Berkshire), A. Sanclluun (Surrey). E. Tyldcsley (Lancashire), G. Gunn (Notts), K. S. Duleep Sinhji (Cambridge University). ALL-BOUNDERS. W. R. Hammond (Gloucestershire), E. S. G. Calthorpc (Warwickshire), I’. G. 11. Fender (Surrey). B. Kilncr (Yorkshire), V. E. Woolley (Kent). BOWLERS. G. Geary (Leicestershire), H. Larwood (Noils), C. W. L. Parker (Gloucestershire), A. E. B. Gilligan (Sussex), W. E. Astill (Leicestershire), ,T. Newman (Hampshire), C. F. Root (Worcestershire), H. H. Macaulay (Yorkshire), M. W. Tato (Sussex). WICKET-KEEPER, H. Strudwick (Surrey). E. <L Smith (Warwickshire), N. B. Chcrwcll (Cambridge) University), G. E. Livock (Middlesex), B. Lilley (Notts).