SCATHING COMMENT ON AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17878, 21 June 1926, Page 9

SCATHING COMMENT ON AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS.

“THEIR PARAMOUNT INTEREST IS GATE RETURNS,” SAYS CRITIC. “ TOO LONG HAS ENGLAND SUFFERED FROM INFLUENCE ON OUR PLAYERS.” By Telegraph.—Press Association.-—Copyright.—“Sydney Sun” Cable. (Received June 21, 11 a.m.) LONDON, June 20. The “ Observer,” recalling a paragraph in Lillywhite’s Annual of 1882 “ that unconsciously, and perhaps without suspicion, the Australians had seriously and perceptibly aggravated the symptoms of the commercial spirit into cricket,” declares that the suggestion still holds. ” The visitors have never attempted to disguise (heir paramount interest in the gate returns. The increasing tendency in the last twenty years is only to regard the tours in two aspects: (a) A crusade for the defeat of England. (b) A commercial proposition. “The Australians have never understood nor appreciated the importance England attaches to the county championships. If international cricket ceased, we would be woefully poorer, but if county cricket lost its grip cricket would quickly die. Lengthening the matches by a single day is one thing, and unlimited extension another. “ We have suffered enough from the influence of the Australians’ unlimited cricket upon our leading players. The time limit is indispensable. The true interests and delights of cricket will be more and more obscured so long as England and Australia are more concerned in avoiding defeats than in forcing a win. If the process advances far enough, the day of reckoning will come when the public awakens to the fact that the game is really dead and will seek recreation elsewhere. “ The whole tendency in modern sport has been to increase the pace. Is cricket alone deliberately to reverse the process?”