CRICKET

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 155, 3 July 1934, Page 5

CRICKET

LARWOOD SPEAKS M.C.C. “LET HIM DOWN BADLY. TEST INTRIGUE ALLEGED. SENSATIONAL ARTICLE. A cablegram from London on June 17 said that the cricket controversy over bodyline had again assumed disturbing proportions as the result of the publication of a sensational article by Harold Larwood alleging intrigue in Test cricket. Below are given extracts from the article as cab.ed to Australian papers. Marylebone (wrote Larwood in the Sunday IDispatch) has surrendered to political and other interests, which are determined at ail costs to placate Australia and conveniently forget how we won the last series of Tests. After stating that cricket is not a nursery game, Larwood adds: Oldtimers took more knocks than the majority of moderns who play on wickets of grass. We arc breeding a race of namby-pamby cricketers, afraid of their own shadows. My future in county cricket is indefinite, but I am afraid my days have ended as a Test player. For one thing lam burning my boats in telling the public what 1 believe to be the truth. People in high places at Lord's and elsewhere probably will wash their hands of me. Do I care? Well. I am a little disappointed. 1 always tried to play the game in every sense of the word. The selectors, before the Trent Bridge Test, asked me whether I were fit. I was d 'tcrinined not to play, but in order to n.u,ko their position easy, I answered that 1 was unlit. Then I went off and skittled Sussex (Larwood took five wickets for 66 runs). If I had said 1 was fit, and wanted to play, would they have played me? 1 have heard 1 was not to be played in the first Test in any case. If England could win without mo 1 would not be p-ayed at all. which would placate the people who feared that cricket was going to burst up the Empire; but England did not win. I have been badly let down by those in authority. Why don’t they come out into the open and ban leg theory? Sir Stanley Jackson (a selector) is reported to have said that if I were asked to piny it would be uncondition- | ally. This is mere quibble. Sir Stanley Jackson carefully added that all players would be under the captain's instructions. In my whole career I have not heard before of a Test captain dictating to a bowler that he must bowl only a certain way. ■ That was only a ruse to prevent me from bowling leg theory; but in view of the newspaper and public outcry I I am to be invited to play. I will now reveal that from the first I had no intention of playing against an Australian captain who regards me as unfair. If I did intend to play I should certainly bowl leg theory. If the captain interfered with the disposition of the field I would refuse to bowl and would walk from the wicket. It is perhaps well that did not happen. Marylebone is willing to wound, but is afraid to strike. It never admitted that my bowling was directed against the batsman’s body. It has not discovered anything in the rules to prevent it. It had not the courage to alter the rules. If I were right in Australia I must be right now. If Marj-lebone admits wo won the last series of Tests under false pretences, well and good, but does it ? No! In the usual shilly-shally manner it tries to be for and against leg theory simultaneously. Conspirators are spreading poison everywhere. Leg-theory is going to be killed if some people have their way, and they will hound me from the game by exerting pressure inspired by influential leaders upon Notts through a threat to cancel fixtures. The climax came recently when. I j believe, Carr was informed that the I position was serious and that leg-theory would have to cease. I Yorkshire are reported to be against [Notts’ methods. I cannot help smiling at the threat, as they have a bowler whose short bumpers are infinitely more dangerous to life and limb than any-

thing I send down. (Presumably Larwood refers to Bowes.) Soon we poor bowlers will have to use a tennis ball or bowl lobs. Carr Upset. Naturally, this bombshell has upset Carr terribly. Even now he may have to resign as other captains are questioning his sportsmanship in brea.ki.ug a gentleman’s agreement not to use “bodyline” in county cricket (the county captains’ agreement). Carr is always behind me on leg-theory and he knows I do not deliberately aim at tha body. Voce, as a left-hander, requires fieldsmen on the leg side, yet squealers also want that stopped. There is wide determination to stop leg-theory. Jt is alleged my pace is dangerous, especially to slow-footed batsmen Now the cat is completely out of the bag. All those unable tu time my bowling are combining to stop it by hook or by crook. If a batsman is so slow-footed that he is always being hit, it is time he retired from international cricket. The success of Fames at Treat Bridge showed that the Australians arc not used to speed, whether leg-theory or otherwise. 1 am stiil loyal to Notts. Moreover, I must earn a living, so I shall drop leg-theory in county matches, but that docs not make me less bitter against the mandarins in high places who have made it their business to eliminate a perfectly fair method of bowling.