THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5667, 11 September 1896, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS.

The Australian cricketers , concluded their English tour on Saturday with a drawn game against the South of England Eleven. Prom first to last the team has been markedly successful, and that its success has not been quite brilliant and unprecedented is due in great measure to the bad weather, of the last few weeks, which has caused matches to be lost that might otherwise have been won or drawn. As it is the team has come out with a total of six losses and nineteen wins, a more than creditable performance when the testing quality of most of the matches played is taken into consideration. It is a long while since an Australian Eleven could show such a record. Ignoring drawn games, the team of 1893 won eighteen ,matches and lost thirteen, and that of 1890 actually lost more than it won. The 1888 combination had a record of twenty wins and fourteen losses. The team that went Home in 1886 was a strong one on ; paper, but performed very indifferently, and we have to go back to the famous elevens led by Murdoch in 1884 and 1882, to find the hooour of Australian cricket upheld as ably as it has been by the present combination. In some respects the commencement of the present tour was inauspicious. Australian opinions of the personnel of the team were not altogether favourable, and the element of discord was early introduced through the rejection of some of the players originally chosen. In addition its strength was weakened by Turner and Bruce declining to make the tour. However, a good start was made in the opening match at Sheffield Park, and when this had been followed up by seven consecutive victories, the English Press, at first inclined to be patronising, had altered its tone to one of studious respect. At this stage occurred the sensational collapse against the Marylebone Club and the deplorable failure in the first innings against All England coming soon afterwards, appeared to show that the team was, after all, a much overrated one. The English Press again became patronising and depreciatory, and the public appeared to be on the verge of losing interest in the tour. Cricketers will not need to be reminded that the test match was turned from something very like a farce into a memorable struggle by the stand made by Gregory andTrottinthe second innings, a stand which had far more important consequences than those directly affecting the match. It . was, in fact, the turning point of the tour, enabling the team to continue its engagements with its prestige undiminished, and inspiring the members of it with a confidence which must have had a great deal to do with their after successes. A series of victories, culminating in'the -defeat of All England, followed, and when the powerful Surrey Eleven went down in hollow fashion before the visitors it looked very much as if the supremacy of the cricket world would be taken back to the Antipodes. The third test match was commenced with excellent prospects, but an unsatisfactory game resulted in favour of England.' With this fixture • much :of the interest in the tour came to an end, though it was decidedly unfortunate that rain interfered with the two important matches at Scarborough and Hastings. Compared with the 1882 Eleven Trott's team has been more remarkable for consistency than for special brilliance in any department. It has no batsman so reliable as Murdoch, no bowler so deadly as Spofforth, and no hitter to be compared with Massie or Bonnor. The team's victories have been due to all - round thoroughness, and to the determination with which its members as a whole have set themselves to play every game out to the finish. A feature of the tour has been the success of the players new to English cricket grounds. Nine members of the team made the trip for the first time, and of these Iredale, Donnan, Darling and Hill have shown that they can bat equally well away from home, while the bowling of Jones, and to a lesser extent of M'Kibbin, has been decidedly effective. Another respect in which the team has been an improvement on its predecessors is in its conduct off the field. It is generally understood thatthe eleven^ of 1893 would have done a great deal better, but for internal bickerings and a tendency to neglect the rest afforded by the " Sundays in between." Trott's men have evidently worked together in perfect harmony, and have batted, bowled and fielded . with the spectre of the bad fortune of other teams before their eyes. It; would, perhaps, be going too far to say that the results of the tour justify the claim that the best eleven of Australia is ; equal to the best eleven of England. The visitors were fairly beaten in two oxit of three test matches, and that after winning the toss on two out of three occasions. But they can claim to 'have beaten or drawn with every county, to have repeatedly' mastered the best of English bowling, and to have never had their own bowling thoroughly collared. They have at least brought the best Australian cricket approximately to the level of the best .English, and have made it mdisputablo that though the latter mayvsclaim a. slight superiority a trifle would be sufficient to turn the scale.