CRICKET

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 197, 20 August 1929, Page 12

CRICKET

ENGLAND'S URGENT NEED ANOTHER HAROLD LARWOOD. SHORTAGE OF PACE BOWLERS. It does not seem to be much of an exaggeration to say that there is a world shortage of pace bowlers, writes George Geary in the London Sunday Graphic. When we started out for Australia last autumn it was not considered very likely that we should be called upon to face Jack Gregory in Test matches But when the Australian selectors got down to their team problem they discovered that they had no effective successor .to Gregory, and so he played. Alas, after meeting with some success, Gregory broke down, and in the later Tests Australia had to carry on as best they could without a real express man in the side. A country playing cricket on “shirt-fronts” had no natural successor to Gregory! I know that between now and the time when the team has to sail for England next season the Australian selectors will hunt around in real earnest for a fast bowler. They know very well that a team which hopes to win the Tests even in England hasn’t a good chance of doing so without an express man in the side. This is obvious. It is one of the unmistakable lessons taught us by the history books. In many series of Test matches it has been the fast bowlers who have turned the scale. In 1921 Australia were in clover, for they were able to include in their side two— Jack Gregory and Ted Macdonald. There is no necessity for me to detail what happened.’ Australia won all the three Test matches which were finished in that season, and the men who were mainly responsible for the comparatively quick finishes were Gregory and Macdonald.

Larwood’s Part. Maybe we should never have secured the Ashes in the summer of 1926 if we had not discovered Harold Larwood just in time. And certainly Larwood, our express man, did much to help us to retain the Ashes during the recent tour in Australia. Think of the start which Larwood gave us in the first Test. When Australia went in to bat he had Ponsford and Woodfull back in the pavilion with the total standing at seven, and in the first Test innings of Australia he took six wickets for 32 runs.

Naturally, he could not keep up such figures right through the tour, but in practically every big game he got rid of one or two of the most dangerous batsmen while he was still fresh.

Most of the countries are to-day facing their opponents without a dependable fast bowler in the side. Yet if you want an illustration of what a consistent express bowler means you have it in the triple championship success of Lancashire since Macdonald became a regular member of the side.

Fast Left-Handers Wanted. It may be argued that so far as the Tests of this season and next are concerned there is no occasion for us tt. worry, because we hav e Larwood, still quite young. But that is not an entirely satisfactory position. We must not overlook the fact that the England team very nearly had to go to Australia last autumn without Larwood, and there is always a risk of a fast bowler straining himself or just over-doing things a little, so that the extra bit of speed which makes all the difference vanishes.

In the “Rest’’ team which played in the recent trial match there was no express bowler, and this suggests that in the opinion of the selectors, at any rate, we have no * 1 second to Larwood,” worthy of a place in that trial. One of the strange things—one of the things I have never been able to fathom—is the scarcity of fast lefthand bowlers. With the exception of Clark, of Northants, we haven’t a fast left-handed bowler in first-class cricket to-day. I wonder what a left-hander with the pace of a Macdonald or Larwood would be worth in most of the county teams! I believe such a bowler would reap a big harvest, partly because he would be so strange to us all.