The Topic of the Week: Chapman for the Cricket Tests?

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19803, 19 May 1934, Page 12

The Topic of the Week: Chapman for the Cricket Tests?

Vital Question of Who Will Lead the English Side

(By B. J. T. Bosanquet, the Famous Oxford University, Middlesex, and England Cricketer)

Another cricket season is upon us. The Australians, who are to provide most of its interest, have not only selected their captain and their team but have actually played together more than once, and are half-way on their trip to England. In other words, they have already gone part of the way towards making the most of their capabilities. What are we doing? So far, nothing; not only have we no ! captain or even the nucleus of a side as yet, but we have not even any selectors. However, in cricket as in warfare and other things, although we j seem always to be late starters, we I generally manage to “get there” somehow or other. This habit of “muddling through” may have been successful on occasions in the past, but, seriously, cannot it be bettered? The Selectors Criticised Let us first consider the question of ! selectors. In recent years it has been the custom. to appoint three “Old Gentlemen,” one of whom is chairman, and for them to co-opt two professionals, and occasionally to consult the captain and to tender him quite a lot of advice. I am going to say, quite definitely, that these methods are wrong. I consider that any cricketer, however eminent in the past, and however estimable in character, is totally unfitted to judge and select the best team if he has not been actively connected with the game himself for many years. However experienced a man may be, : however keen a judge of the game, he I cannot really sum up the merits or demerits of others unless he has been constantly playing with and against | them. I know some instances in which j a selector has helped to pick a team | without having seen one member of : the team play that season. Further, no one can pick the side best calculated to beat the Australians unless he has himself played against at least the majority of them and knows their strong and weak points thoroughly. My own idea of a Selection Committee is that it should consist of a chairman (who can and might with advantage be an old player with great experience) and two other members actively engaged in first-class cricket, and with personal knowledge of the Australians and all the potential Eng- \ lish players. A captain should be chosen for all five matches and form the fourth member of the committee, and be consulted on all occasions. How can a captain be at his best or get the best out of his side if it is not the side he wants? I remember A. C. Maclaren at the Oval once having a bowler he particularly fancied brought to the

5. ground and not being allowed to play i him. y For these positions I would suggest i as chairman Sir Stanley Jackson or j Mr H. D. G. Leveson-Gower. I am - afraid, however, that the former, great player as he was (possibly the best y Test match player England ever had), d- has been so long out of the game, and so long abroad in his country’s service, as to have lost touch; he has probably D not seen more than one or two of the 3 present Australian side. “Jacker” t would probably, therefore, not con--1 sider himself fitted for so responsible 3 a post; and, as the last man to accept a 3 post for which he did not feel suited, he would probably decline. Mr Leveson-Gower has kept in close touch with the game and has made an admirable chairman in the past, and will, one hopes, do so again. Active Members Proposed For the two active members I should ' i suggest such as G. O. Allen (presuming he is not well enough to play). P. j , G. H. Fender. A. W. Carr, or P. T. I - Eckersley. Such a committee should meet as ; soon as possible and select their captain. Jardine has apparently put j | himself out of the running - . There is, however, a cricketer of great , experience who docs understand the 1 Australians and gets on capitally with ( them and everyone else, a fine j 1 batsman, a magnificent field, and a ; great captain—A. P. F. Chapman. j From the moment in 1926 when, at , the Oval, in his first Test match as j captain, he took Tate off after bowling j j three maiden overs, and there-by prei vented Woodfull from getting set for j I the day, his captaincy was faultless. ! ! His presence in the field is always an ' inspiration and an example to the whole side, and he is more than likely j to make a good score when wanted. The Claims of Chapman No one who saw Wyatt’s uninspiring i captaincy in the similar match in j 1930 (to say nothing of memories of Whysall and Woolley in the deep field , most of the match) would wish to re- . new such an experience. Wyatt batted • nobly and fielded well, but I do not see him leading an England side to sue- j cess. I will go so far as to say that if • Chapman captained ' our side right through and were given a fair chance we should win the coming series of matches. We shall win them only after a hard ! struggle, fought in a good spirit, and with plenty of give-and-take on both : sides. If Chapman does not captain the team, and certain other possibilities take shape, I shall look forward with dismay to what mi; ht happen. To my mind only L , one man could ; save the situation and emphasise the j good relations which have always ex- ! isted between the contestants. I hold j no personal brief for Chapman, but it has always been my considered opinion since 1926 (when I had never even met him* that he is the only great captain against the Australians we have seen since Maclaren.

Whether he is in a position to tak on such a responsibility or whether h is in good health and equal to th strain I do not know. If he is. le him be invited to lead us to victory There is no other possible Candidat* so far as I can see. I think that some of the "Ole Gentlemen” I refer to might be o great help to the committee in an ad visory capacity. That is, could the: not (on salary, if necessary) visit various grounds and report on the abilitie: of possible players? Mr A. C. Maclaren, for example with his great knowledge of the game and his fine judgment of a greal player, would be ideal in such £ position. The Game’s the Thing “It is said that some of the Australians who are coming to England foi the Test matches are wonderin'; whether they will be "barracked” bj the spectators. They need not be un.easy (says Robert Lynd in “The Newt Chronicle”). There is no crowd less given to bitter partisanship than an English crowd at a cricket match. The English are sometimes accused of taking games too seriously; but, as a matter of fact, in the course of yqars, they have acquired a philosophy of sport which tells them that, though most games are worth getting seriously excited about, no game is worth getting seriously angry about. It .is one of the miracles of sport at its best that it enables men to fight each other as desperately as if they were deadly enemies, and to remain en as good terms with each other as if they were lifelong friends. If the niracle had not happened, one would have said that it was impossible for emotional human beings to engage in i physical contest as keenly as if the :ate of the world depended on the issue, and, at the same time to remember shat the -fate of the world does not •eally depend on the issue, and that i good defeat is the next best thing to i good victory. The Glory of Cricket Of all games, cricket, I fancy, least ixcites the spirit of partisanship. The »ame is not crowded, like a football natch, into a brief ninety minutes.

Cricket is a game in watching which it is more difficult to sustain this intensity from start to finish. It is full of leisure moments, if only at the end of every over, and it is played (with luck) in a leisurely atmosphere of sum-

’ j mer sunshine, affording a spectacle of I white-clad players on a green lawn - that is a perpetual delight to the eye. | However excited we may be as to the ! issue, there are enough breaks in the | excitement to enable us to enjoy the • spectacle for its own sake, and to relax into the non-partisan mood of a holij day. Great Players Appreciated ! Partly because of this leisurely spectacular interest, cricket is a game in which—more than in any other game perhaps—the spectator enjoys good j play by the other side. | In cricket, the ordinary spectator would be positively disappointed if j even in the most critical match, a I great player failed to play greatly. No | Englishman, I am sure, ever wished : to see Macartney going out too early, j The spectator may not exactly pray | that the greatest batsman on the other side may score a double century, but, | m at least half his being, he would j like to see him knocking up a beautiful j 50. | But, even if the batsman’s score mounts up to 200, the spectator has I much to compensate him. His par- ! tisan longings yield to aesthetic de- | light in fine strokes, and, during a spell lof inspired batsmanship, there are | moments when he forgets that he cares i who wins. im c tial Applause That is why applause on the cricket j ground is the most impartial in the j world, and an Australian master of the J game is as popular at Lord’s—or nearly j so— as an English. I hope, however, that during the com- | ing season both Australian and English i players will make cricket look a little more like a game than it has some--1 times done in recent years. How I many matches have there been that have seemed for long spells as weari- ' some as a war of attrition! Sometimes when I have been watch- j ing a cricket match, I have found my- j self longing for a new rule that would penalise the batting side for every maiden over, and another rule that would give every basman "out” who played the ball with anything but his bat. One would not like to see cricket los- . ing all its leisureliness or to see every I batsman attempting—in vain—to emu- j late the lightning scoring of Jessop. ' But the ball would be none the worse j for being hit, and hit hard, a little i more frequently than it is in some j modern matches. May both the Australian and the I English players go ahead in top gear ! often during the coming season!