WHO WILL MANAGE DOMINION TEAM FOR OLD COUNTRY?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18016, 29 November 1926, Page 11

WHO WILL MANAGE DOMINION TEAM FOR OLD COUNTRY?

AUCKLAND WRITER DOES NOT FAVOUR C. C. WILSON. SAYS STANLEY BRICE J WOULD BE POPULAR. (Special to the “Star”! AUCKLAND. November 20 “ Mark Tapley,” a well-known weekly contributor to the Auckland <# Star" Sports Edition, writes in the issue of November 27 as follows: “ There seems to be something more than meets the eye behind the Wei* lington agitation for the appointment of the veteran C. G. Wilson to the managership of the New Zealand cricket team for the coming English tour. No doubt the bluff win be called before very long. On tb« f*o* of it, there appears to be a veiled threat that if its nominee be not chosen for that important position, Wellington's financial support may be affected. One would havo thought that the consequences of th# New Zealand Rugby League's example of complications, partly due to the sending of an Australian Home as the manager of a sporting organisation, would have deterrea Wellingtonians from propaganda Oil Mr Wilson’s behalf. “ One recalls the * incidents * of a Canterbury-Wellington match at Wellington when, Brice being not available, Wilson, despite his fifty years odd and a bad leg, braved public opinion to take a place in the Wellington team in front of a younger man and failed, Wellington losing the Plunkot Shield by seven wickets within a month after its capture, though leading on the first innings by 135 runs. Then there was the Otago-Auckland match in which an acrimonious dispute arose between Mr Wilson (then Otago captain) and the Aucklanders over a matter of procedure. These incidents indicate a highly developed ‘ will to win,' characteristic of rather a decided * will not to lose' sense, which was scathingly denounced iu England as an Australian characterise tic not appealing to Englishmen as part of cricket. Is it desirable that the New Zealand team should perpetrate this unpopular characteristic f “If the capital city wishes to sag a man from the province appointed, why not get on side and give Stanley Brice ago for the managership? Ha has been a prominent Kugby player as well as a New Zealand representative cricketer, ia a selector of thn team to be dispatched to the Old Country, and. il misfortune befel ik could send down a ball or weild a bat (he made 51 not out as late aa last Saturday) with the best o§ them.’*