CRICKET.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1926, Page 7

CRICKET.

ENGLISH TEST MATCH A CLEAN SWEEP. (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, Feb. 25. The first definite step in preparatiot for the test matches with the Austrae liana has been taken. ’This is the ap 4 pointment of the committee who will 1>« responsible for the selection, first, of the captain, and, then, of the team. Public opinion has undoubtedly played a big part in the decision of the Board of Control. For some mouths it has been insisted that the selectors should be men in the closest touch with the game, and also that a proportion of the committee should be active cricketers. Another demand put forward was that the captain should have a voice in the picking of the players. All these points have been conceded, and really a big step has been taken, as compared with former test match seasons. The committee is to consist of six. So far only three have been chosen. They are P. F. Warner, as chairman, A. E. R. Gilligan, who led the last M.C.C. team in Australia, and Percy Perrin, an old Essex batsman. This means that a clean sweep has been made. When the Australians were last here the selectors were H. D. Leveson-Gower, J. Daniel, and R. H. Spooner. The extension of the committee will be decided by thoso already appointed. They have been instructed to co-opt two professionals, one from the North and the other from the South, and also to elect the captain. The last named, and not Mr. Warner, the chairman, is to be given the casting vote. It docs not, of course, follow that a captain will be elected for all the Tests. Indeed, this is most unlikely. In 1905 the Hon. F. S. Jackson was made permanent captain before the first game, but to-day there is no amateur of his outstanding fitness for the position, and the leader will no doubt be chosen as each match comes to b» played. A BATSMAN SKIPPER? The three amateurs already selected have given great satisfaction. Mr. Warner has had more experience of cricket under every condition, both at home and abroad, than any other authority, and, though he retired from the game as the captain of Middlesex three years ago he lias remained in the closest touch with it. Gilligan’s knowledge of the present generation of Australian cricketers will be useful, and, though Perrin, like Warner, has dropped out of the game, he is a player of shrewd judgment. The Southern professional to be co-opted is sure to be Jack Hobbs, and the man chosen from the North is likely to be Rhodes. In the past professionals have usually been consulted, but this is the first' time they have been given voting powers. It has not been decided when the captain will ba elected, nor who the player will be, but it is generally expected that the choice will fall on Mr. A. W. Carr, the Notts skipper. In the first place lie is not a bowler, and in the second he always goes all out to win. P. G. H. Fender, the Surrey leader, is a master of tactics, but lie is also a very useful change bowler, and it is believed that it would be better to have a batsman in charge. Further, Carr was so brilliantly successful with the bat last season that ho would probably command his place because of his run-getting powers. Gilligan is not likely to be selected. The last Australian tour proved a very severe strain to him. and he has not since been in good health. Indeed, it was on this account that he had to drop out of the Sussex eleven last summer.