Cricket Tours

Southland Times, Issue 23651, 28 October 1938, Page 6

Cricket Tours

The visit early next year of Sir Julien Cahn’s cricket team, the members of which were announced yesterday, should give a decided impetus to the game in New Zealand this season. It is unfortunate that the tour has had to be restricted to nine matches (including two, at Sir Julien’s express wish, against school-boy sides), but it will provide an incentive for club players and valuable experience for those who gain places in the provincial and New Zealand teams. The visiting team will be a strong one. Followers of the game will welcome the- reappearance of C. S. Dempster, the present captain of the Leicestershire county eleven, who has more than fulfilled the promise he showed as a batsman before his departure from New Zealand. The team includes also the Test bat, J. Hardstaff, four former New South Wales players who are now living in England, and several promising young English all-rounders.

There are hopes that an Australian team will visit the Dominion in 1940, so that for the next two seasons New Zealand should have the opportunity to advance its cricketing education on its own grounds. This is the more fortunate because the New Zealand Cricket Council has just revealed in its annual report that the last tour of England and Australia by a New Zealand team resulted again in a substantial loss. The net cost of the tour to the council was £l6OO (it would have been greater but for the generosity of the Australian State associations and the Melbourne Cricket Club), and the council’s touring reserve fund, established in 1932, has been reduced by successive losses to the low level of £233. This, is regrettable, but it is no reason for losing heart. Education in cricket, as in other sports, has to be bought dearly. For New Zealand the task has been made harder by the loss of a succession of proved players like Dempster, Blunt and Dacre. But many good cricketers remain in the Dominion, and if the authorities in Britain and Australia and enthusiasts like Sir Julien Cahn are willing to help ■develop them the time should not be very far distant when New Zealand touring teams will attract large enough crowds to pay their way. -