CRICKET ATTACK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 204, 29 August 1936, Page 4

CRICKET ATTACK

[ ENGLAND’S “DEVIL” COMMENT ON ITS FORM AUSTRALIANS IMPRESSED. THE POTENCY OF GRIMMETT. Critics disagree about the strength ot the English cricket team chosen to contest supremacy with Australia in the Commonwealth this season. According to cable advice the Australians have been impressed with the English team’s strength. One New Zealand critic states:— Apparently it is 10 to one on Aus tralia retaining the Ashes. Some people may contend that this is a needlessly pessimistic view of England’s prospects, yet it is a view widely shared. Percy Chapman, former EnglUh Test captain, usually cheerful and ex überant, wrote the other day in the Dail-. Mail; “Unless the team that leaves England next September includes in its number a new Larwood or a reinvigorated Verity, it will have all the difficulties of the team that that great cricketer, the late JohnnyDouglas, captained in Australia 15 years ago. and its fate will be the same—all five matches won by Australia. We need to find two really first-class bowlers if we are to have any hope of winning at all. If we unearth one, we shall be fortunate. Personally, I cannot see where he is coming from.” The man the English batsmen fear most is Grimmett, adds the Now Zealand critic. Not at his best in 1932, partly owing to illness, Grimmett rose to top-notch deadliness on the 1934 tour of England to capture 25 Test wickets at an average cost of 26.72 runs per wicket. Australia won the Ashes in that series. In 1935 the South Africans also went Home and beat England in the Test rubber, to return to Cape Town with natural feelings of jubilations and joy. But shortly afterwards it was Australia's turn to visit South Africa,

and that joy quickly faded. Australia won decisively four Tests out of five. That, was in the Tests, remember, on hard South African soil. The main cause, it is said, of Grimmett's new era of destructiveness lies in the fact that he has perfected a I deadlier type of googly. In Australia, however, the critics are not so supremely confident that Grimmett will prove the giant-killer |he was in South Africa. Of course, jthey have heard the “new googly” I story before, and discount it accord- ! ingly. I A well-known Victorian critic, E. H. | Baillie, comments:— I The first: thing that strikes one in scanning the names of the English party is that there are no fewer than 10 bowlers in the side, and live or six men who may be regarded as allrounders. It is quite evident that the selectors have aimed to build up a side that will be as well balanced as possible, for every type of player is included in the list. In doing so, there is an impression that they have made the bowling strength their main objective, while the selection of so many all-rounders indicates that they were determined to avoid the possibility of a long batting “tail.” if possible. Whether, in adopting this plan, they have succeeded in selecting the best possible side, seems rather doubtful, from what we know of the players. So far as the bowling is concerned (he adds) there certainly is quantity, and there is every variety, but the big question arises: Is there the required quality? As to variety, there are fast right-handers in Allen, Copson and Fames; a fast left-hander in Voce: last medium in Worthington; medium pace in Holmes, slow to medium righthand in Sims, slow right-hand in Robins, and slow left-hand in Verity. Surely variety enough for anyone, but they can’s all be played in the one game. Allen. Voce and Verity, of coutse, we know from what they did on the last tour, and Sims created a very fine impression when here last season. He was the outstanding bowler in that team that went to New Zealand. One should say that Worthington and Holmes are unlikely to be played in the Tests for their bowling; but they may be useful as changes if included for their batting. Fames, it will be remembered, made a very fine debut in Test cricket against the last Australian team in England, but had to drop out of the game because of injury. If Copson can stand up to the strain—and there appears to be some doubt about this—he might, with his quick nip off the pitch, be one of the most successful of the fast bowlers. Judged by past