PROPOSED CHANGE IN CRICKET SEASON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18938, 7 December 1929, Page 27 (Supplement)

PROPOSED CHANGE IN CRICKET SEASON.

> LONDON, October 24. Last summer was a bad one for cricket financially, and, though there has been no statement of accounts as yet, the counties who did not lose were the exceptions. Next season the Australians will be here, and there is little doubt that there will be a revival, but the position is not satisfactory, and Leicestershire at least believe that it can be improved. They contend that the season starts too soon and they proposed that it should be prolonged. They urge the M.C.C. to try and come to some arrangement with the football authorities for a revision of the two seasons. At the present time football ends at the beginning of May and is immediately followed by the opening of cricket. Usually, however, the weather during the first two weeks of May is more suited to football than cricket. On the other hand, the conditions during the first fortnight of September, when football begins, are all in favour of cricket. For instance, this season football players had a distressing experience at the start. The temperature was high in the eighties and the ground was as hard as cement. In these circumstances, Leicestershire suggest that cricket and football should exchange a fortnight. They also propose to alter the hours of play by beginning matches on each of the first two days at twelve o’clock and continuing until seven. By this arrangement it is thought that business men would be tempted to leave their office* a little earlier than usual, if they knew that they would see, say, two hours* play.*