The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. "Luceo Non Uro.” SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1934. SPOILING CRICKET

Southland Times, Issue 22293, 7 April 1934, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. "Luceo Non Uro.” SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1934. SPOILING CRICKET

In connection with the cricket discussions it is impossible to avoid the suspicion that some kinds of journalistic enterprise are of no assistance to the game. Sensational newspaper stories contributed in ho small degree to the fanning of antagonism when the M.C.C. team was in Australia, and the literary efforts of some of the players did not help to bring about an abatement of them, but already the atmosphere is being warmed up by legend and sensational trimmings. On the one hand there is a report, fortunately denied with emphasis, that Mr Thomas and Mr Bruce discussed the situation, and that Mr Bruce informed the Secretary for the Dominions that Australia would be quite agreeable if Chapman were appointed captain of the English side. The story carried its own refutation. No player, and no official connected with the game in Australia could so far forget the ordinary dictates of sportsmanship as to contemplate any statement which could be construed as an effort to interfere in a matter that is strictly the M.C.C.’s affair. Australia might have felt that it should express the hope that Jardine would be playing for England, but even that would have been an impropriety. At the same time the report that two high political officers of the Empire should be drawn into official negotiations about international cricket was pernicious. Cricket is a game and when it becomes a matter for political ini tervention the sooner it is dropped the better for all concerned. Both Mr Thomas and Mr Bruce gave a hearty denial of the story, but it is a pity it ever appeared. Then came the rumours of English antagonism to Jardine, with hints that prominent players were involved. Close on the heels of this there appeared in the Daily Express an article on the Australians which has every appearance of being touched up here and there to give it a more sensational tone. Wisely, the members of the Australian team have been told to avoid interviews and to say nothing about international cricket, and a rebuffed newspaper man gives British people the impression that the players are being kept under an irksome discipline. Many object to the excessive importance attached to international cricket and the feeling these contests engender, but when the causes of these ills are being sought it is to be hoped the influence of the public exploitation of it by sensational newspapers will not be overlooked. The sensational Press does not exist for the presentation of news, but for the commercial exploitation of it and, unfortunately, they have cultivated a large audience which will be satisfied with nothing except sensational items. Thus molehills become mountains, breezes become gales, and international sport develops into a meeting of gladiators. Everything is done to give the impression that tremendous issues are at stake, issues beside which such matters as disarmament and quotas become trivial. Cricket is being ruined not by the men who play it, but by those who are exploiting it for commercial ends, and without thought for the injury they are doing it. If Bradman happens to express the opinion that a particular decision by an umpire was not correct, the world is informed in a manner' which tends to elevate a simple statement into a declaration of international importance; if Larwood expresses the hope that he will be selected to represent Eng-

land in the Tests, the news is trumpeted as loudly as the announcement of a Budget surplus. Shortly we may find the M.C.C. and the Board of Control superseded by government organisms, and arrangements for tours referred to the Council of the League of Nations for determination. The prowess of international gladiators is being used for commercial purposes, and in the operations of those seeking to make money cricket, football and even tennis are ceasing to be sports. The desire of every Australian sportsman is that the Australian team shall meet, and defeat if possible, the best eleven that England can put into the field, and that the games shall be played without any artificial restrictions. But this sensationalism seems to be working for a revival of the antagonism which sensationalism fanned in Australia, and the players are the victims.