LEAGUE CRICKET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18256, 27 November 1933, Page 3

LEAGUE CRICKET

“GAME DOES NOT COUNT” “DONNYBROOKS” ON WICKETS Sidelights on the playing of league cricket m England were given in W ellington by Mr. I. B. Cromb, the New Zealand representative cricketer, on his return from England. “League cricket teams always have one professional player in them, the remaining 10 men being strictly amateurs,” said Mr. Cromb. "It is quite distinct from county cricket. League cricket flourishes only in the North of England, principally in Lancashire, but also to some extent in Yorkshire. The people of the great industrial areas have for their only diversion cricket and football, and cricket as a game does not count. The team has to win, regardless of all costs, and it is quite a common experience to see a ‘donnybrook’ develop on tho wicket during the progress of the game. ’ ’ “It is a curious fact that players such as .Sutcliffe, Paynter, and Duckworth were failures when they played the league game,” said Mr. Cromb. “The different type of game by which teams were bound to win did not suit them.

“In league cricket the crowd dictates tho policy that teams are to follow. For instance, each game is decided in one day, commencing at 2 o’clock on Saturday and finishing at 7 o’clock. There is no set rule as to when the second team will commence hatting, but no team would dare to continue at the wicket after 4 o’clock if, say, it had made 300 or 400 runs. The crowd would soon see to it that the other team went to the wickets. The teams play solely to tho crowd and not in any sense for the sake of the game.” Referring to leg-theory howling, Mr. Oromb said that the general attitude at Home was that leg-theory bowling would not he continued for reasons more politic than otherwise.