HOBBS WILL PLAY AGAIN, IF ASKED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18938, 7 December 1929, Page 10

HOBBS WILL PLAY AGAIN, IF ASKED.

EXPRESSES OPINIONS ON NEXT SELECTION

The representative of an Australian paper writes as follows: I called into Jack Hobbs’s sports depot in Fleet Street to find that the great cricketer had just returned from a three weeks’ holiday. He was looking remarkably well —too well for one to think that he has played his last international game. Asked whether he was retiring, as was foreshadowed in Melbourne in the last tour, or whether he was to “come back” again for the next tests, he said: — , , “Oh, I think I’ll play if I am asked. The old legs don’t get as tired over here as they do in Australia. Hobbs does not expect any great changes to be made in the next English team. Little new Blood. “The season just ended, instead of bringing forward many new players, has rather tended to prove that England will have to rely in the ‘old stagers.’ I think you will find that the ‘old hands’ will still be the backbone of the next test side,” said Hobbs. “Until the right type of young blood comes forward, the ‘old ones must fill the bill.” “Frank Woolley has been in splendid form and must be given a great chance of inclusion.” “I asked him whether he could name a few possibilities who were new to Australia. “Well,” he said, “I am inclined to agree with Andy Ducat (the Surrey player who is coaching in Brisbane) that young Robins, who has just come down from Cambridge University, will have a chance. He is a leg-break and googly bowler, a good field and a useful bat. “There is Duleepsinhji, who is a really brilliant bat and a good field, too, while Goddard, a medium-paced eff-break bowler, has shown much promise. Carr as Captain? Hobbs would not be surprised if Carr, who captained England in the last test match against South Africa, were appointed to lead the Englishmen against Australia. “It is early yet to make any predictions,” he said. “I do not know what Chapman’s intentions are. He came back late last season and played hardly any cricket. Then he wrenched his knee. We are hoping that he will get back into form. He seems to be our lucky captain and it would be a pity if we were to lose him.” “Are you ready to ‘make a book’ on the next rubber?” I asked. “Not yet,” he laughed. And then more seriously: “I like our chance better. The home side generally has more of the advantage than the team that leaves with 15 players or so. Whichever way it goes, the results should be plose.” Talked of Criticism. We talked about his criticism of Australian barracking and of the umpire’s decision in favour of Ryder when the Australian captain was allegedly run out in the fifth test in Melbourne. “I am sorry,” he said, and there was genuineness in his voice, “if what I said has lost me a lot of friends. I was asked those questions as soon as I set foot in London and I suppose your people thought that I was ‘groaning’ when I was not. “I was careful to explain that even if Ryder had been given out, it would have made no difference to the result. In my opinion we were already beaten.” “No doubt,” he reflected, “one’s nerves do get a little bit frayed by continual barracking over a long period, especially when you just HAVE to keep your mind on the game. lam afraid you Australians do not like being crticised, but I do not want to drag that up again. All I can say is that I am sorry if I have lost friends over it.” Hopes to go Again. He looked into his counter for a while, as if calling up the old cheers of the crowds in the cities of Australia. Hobbs has a good little business in Fleet Street. As we talked I could not help marvelling at his seeming youth and freshness. So young did he look when I first met him in the depot that I was not sure it was not a brother. “No, I’m the ‘old Jack’ all right,” he said. And when we finished our chat, his parting words were; “Well, give my kind regards to them all out there. I hope to see them again, but next time it will not be as a cricketer. The old legs will get a bit too tired in another few years, I’m thinking.”