ENGLISH CRICKET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19364, 30 June 1937, Page 16

ENGLISH CRICKET

A VITAL SEASON REBUILDING' test team LONDON PAPER’S SURVEY London newspapers received this week emphasise the importance which English cricket, oilieials are placing oil events of the current season, which has now been in progress about, six weeks. It is evident, that every effort will be made to find material - lo replace English cricket on its own pedestal. •Sporting Life publishes an authoritative review of the, season’s prospects, and emphasises that after “failures at home and. in Australia, something is needed to stimulate public interest, to revitalise the county championship, and to’ produce the batsmen and howlers we so badly need.” “This season is a vital one,” the paper adds, “.for in it we .have to build up a team capable of recovering the ashes when the Australians visit England in 1935. Gone are tho great men who so lotiw were the backbone of England elevens. Tn their place we have to produce youngsters who arc capable of filling' the gaps next; season, pud who will (rain on into the stalwarts of the future. Most of the young men who went, to Australia were not so successful as we had hoped. Perhaps they were tried too highly in the electric, "atmosphere in which test games are played ‘down under.’ But the fact remains that they failed to make good. Some may yet fulfil our fondest hopes, ’but; it; .is obvious that new ’blood will have to be discovered, and that quickly.” Likely Young Players Sporting Life then proceeds to a. survov of the “youngsters likely to make good,” and * says that this reveals more batsmen than howlers, with Die batsmen “not so .numerous ns we could wish.” Denis Compton (Middlesex), Harold Gimhlctt (Somerset), and Leonard Hutton (Yorkshire) are three young batsmen mentioned by the paper. Of these three. Sporting Life says: “Gimbletl, after a. mercurial advent into first-class cricket, has not quite fulfilled Iris early promise, and the same may be said of Hutton, hailed in 1934, when only IS, us a future England plover. Both, may yet make the grade. There is no good reason why they should not, but a more likely 10uglam’] batsman than either is young Compton. Those who were privileged 1o see him make 87 :in a match against Xorlhampshhc at Lord’s last June were left in no doubt about his ability or his courage. Only IS years of age, Compton went iu :ii the fall of tho fifth wicket, when Chirk, the lefthanded fast bowler, was howling with such amazing speed and accuracy that old hands could make nothing of him, and five wickets were down for 21. Here was a situation to intimidate the stoutest heart, but Compton, with the impudence of youth and tho nerve of a seasoned player, calmly proceeded to knock Clark off Ms length. If ever there was an England player in the making, we saw him that day. His progress this year will be watched with the greatest interest'.” Compton is also a first-class soccer footballer. One day, early in May, he scored 54 for M.C.C. against Yorkshire at Lord’s. His innings closed at. half-past four. Two hours later he was playing in the Arsenal team against Tottenham Hotspur in the London Challenge Cup final. New Zealand Tests The Sporting .Life article continues: “The season may reveal young bowlers of the same promise, but at the moment the prospect is not encouraging’, though interest has been already aroused by young .Tones, the Glamorgan spinner." What; we most need is a stock bowler of the type of O’Reilly, who has proved such an asset to Australia. We have not had one such since the heyday ot great-hearted Maurice Tate,'of Sussex. “New Zealand are our visitors this season. Against them we are to play three test matches, and though theyare not comparable with the teams which the Australians invariably muster, they should provide excellent material to try out our most promising youngsters, ‘it is sincerely to be hopeil that these tests will bo regarded by the selectors more in the light of trials for the discovery of new blood than as matches that must be won. A. leavening of the well-tried, the men who played their part in last winter’s campaign, we shall naturally expect in the team, but with them should be the best we can find of the younger school. Many a man who has achieved, success for his county has proved nnsuifed temperamentally to tile great occasion. We should at least ensure that the men who are knocking at the door for recognition are given ample opportunity to show what they can do in the' exacting realm of international cricket.”