CRICKET UNCERTAINTIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7418, 2 June 1902, Page 2

CRICKET UNCERTAINTIES.

The well-worn adage that cricket is a game of prodigious uncertainties never received, a better exemplification than it did at Birmingham on the closing days of last week, \yhen the First Test Match between England and Australia opened at .that city on Thursday morning it promised to furnish another colonial victory. At the end of the first day's play it was Anybody's game, but a few hours' *p] ay on Friday changed tie whole aspect of the contest. In one hour the prospect of an Australian success had been routed beyond all hope of redemption, and the next practically assured a victory for the Home team. We stail not attempt to analyse the causes which contributed to these startling revolutions. They must bo apparent enough to practical cricketers who have followed the course of the match in the cable messages, and: they may be summed up briefly in the one word-- weather. The English team, who went in first, batted vfa a good -wicket. Towards -the end of its inning& rain fell, and after the downpour ceased the pitch began, to dry. A wet -wicket does not as a rule present serious difficulties to capable batsmen, but a drying one invariably does. In the past a drying wicket has been responsible for the downfall of the most powerful combinations that have ever been got together, and on Friday it enabled Rhodes and Hirst to dismiss the Australian ieam for a paltry total of 36. From this point, as wo have said already, the- success of the English team was almost certain, and the Australians' only chance of averting defeat lay in prolonging their second innings until time was called on Saturday. This they managed to accomplish, thanks to another downpour, which made more than an hour's pla£ an. impossibility, and the First Test Match of the present series resulted in a draw. This unfi^rfa«tory ending may be attributed partly to\the I weather, but partly also to the absurd pAwj- J

tioo of confining Test Matches to three days. Had the match been played in. Melbourn ft or Sydney instead' of at Birmingham; it would have been continued to-day. As it was, the Home team was robbed of a certain victory by the obedience of the English cricket authorities to an obsolete regulation.