AN UNSATISFACTORY CUSTOM
The prologue to the tour of the Austra^ lian cricket team, in the shape of half a dozen preliminary matches being over, the curtail; was raised to-day for the First Test Match between England and Australia. The scene of the contest is laid at Birmingham, and the actors taking part in the game are the twenty-two players representative of the Mother Country and the Commonwealth. Although the match opened to-day, details of tlie first day's play will not be received until to-morrow. In the meanwhile cricketers in this part of the world will find it entertaining, if not profitable, to discuss fhe composition of the__ rival teams and their chances of success. Unfortunately there appears little prospect of the present match being played to a finish, and a similar remark applies with equal force to its successors. In spite of the fact that of the five test games played during the previous visit of an Australian team to England four were drawn, the Home authorities still .persist in adhering to the arrangemnt which allows only three days for each match. Such a plan practically assures a preponderance of . drawn games. Three days may be sufficient for one match if the wicket is soft, but they are quite inadequate if the ground is dry and in favour of high scoring. The day will come, perhaps, when the English authorities will condescend to follow the Australian practice of playing Test 'Matches to a finish, but at- present there is no immediate prospect of their taking this course. Rather than abandon a custom, the only possible excuse for M'hich can be its antiquity, they •tolerate a prolonged series of drawn games, broken occasionally by a. match which the vagaries of the wicket or the weather has brought- io an unsatisfactory and perhaps ta-aiij conclusion
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Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Issue 7415, 29 May 1902, Page 2
Word Count
304AN UNSATISFACTORY CUSTOM Star (Christchurch), Issue 7415, 29 May 1902, Page 2
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