OFFERS TO PLAYERS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 600, 2 November 1932, Page 11

OFFERS TO PLAYERS.

Comment on Lancashire’s Raid. MR DONNELLY’S VIEWS. Interesting comment on the quality of New Zealand cricketers and the methods of the Lancashire League clubs is made by Mr A. T. Donnelly in a statement touching on the offers recently made to Dominion players. “ People in New Zealand,” Mr Donnelly says, “ cannot understood why Lancashire League clubs come so far for their professionals. League cricket in England is quite modern. The cricket is keen and highly competitive. Every club of means and standing employs one professional, but no more, such professional being generally as good a bowler as can be hired. The pay is rather more than the county average. Play is for one afternoon instead of six days a week, and the work is easy. League agents canvass county teams for players, but almost always fail to induce good professionals in their prime to leave the counties. Weak Bowling. “ Although we have been shown so much kindness by England and the M.C.C., it is important that we should have no false ideas of our prowess. Our batting on the 1931 tour was as strong as any first-class county, and in Dempster we had one of the great batsmen of the world. Even in a bad sumnier, on averages, we were worth about 250 every innings. Before my arrival Merritt and Cromb bowled extraordinarily well; but while I was in England our bowling was worse than the weakest first-class county, because every county had one, and some counties had up to six better bowlers than any bowler in our team from June till September.

“ Our poor bowling was made to look better by the genius of Lowry as captain. Even with the aid of a great captain the weakness of our bowling is easily established by a few figures. For example, Cromb, at Lord’s, was a great bowler. In three matches at Lord’s he obtained 21 wickets for 338 runs, but in the rest of the tour only 37 wickets for 1187; and for weeks at a time he was as harmless as he has been at Hagley Park this season. HiS length is rather short, he has a low slinging action with little variation and spin—serious deficiencies for a medium pace bowler. In first-class cricket in England in 1931 there were forty-eight bowlers, mostly professionals, who obtained as many wickets as Cromb or more, and sixty-six who had a better average. Bovvers of his type and ability are common in England in and out of firstclass cricket, and it is absurd to say that on ability alone he would be selected over a score at least of English county bowlers. League's Difficulty.

“It is plain, therefore, that the League authorities must have difficulty in obtaining professionals in England when they have to come to New Zealand for Cromb. This view is strengthened by the fact that any League club would consider the engagement of Roberts. Roberts is a fine all-round player. He was perhaps unlucky in missing selection for England, and he has not yet reached his best; but he has no performances out of New Zealand.

“ I regret that some players have gone, and others may go, to English League cricket; but I do not complain, because, as has been said, every man is entitled to sell his skill in the best market for the highest price.” Mr Donnelly points out that in 1931 players who went to England were required to give an undertaking that they would not agree to return to England for a period of two years from the date of their arrival in New Zealand. “It has been said,” he concludes, “ that our players have the right to consult their personal interests; and that right I freely admit. I say there are duties as well as rights, and an elementary duty is to keep one’s word unless, on application before breach, one is released.”