BIG OFFERS MADE TO CRICKETERS

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 January 1949, Page 8

BIG OFFERS MADE TO CRICKETERS

SAME PROBLEM AS AFFECTS FOOTBALL CREEPS IN

LONDON, (By Airmail).—Recent signing by some of the large clubs in English League cricket look like afflicting the premier summer sport with the same problem as football—big money. The first rumblings of discontent are not only coming from the smaller League clubs, bu.t also from the County clubs which are perturbed by the large offers to first class cricketers, mostly Test players who are being drawn from all over the world to play for League clubs in England. League clubs go to great lengths to secure a cricketer of note. Some of the Australian tourists in England last season received offers. Members of the present M.C.C. team in South Africa have been approached. Australia is the happy hunting ground for these clubs, but well-known Indians and. West Indies players have appeared in League cricket and are likely to do so in the coming season. Some League clubs are paying professionals four figure fees for a 22 weeks' engagement with additions in the way of collections and talent money. A player can earn as much as £4O stg. for one match. I;'is this that worries the smaller and not so rich clubs, who consider £4O for one game far too much. County clubs are more concerned with the poaching of their star players, and one suggestion is to raise their professionals wages to counteract the lucrative inducements being offered ■by the League clubs. A County professianal -earns something like £3O stg. a week, but out of this he has to pay his hotel, laundry bills and his other expenses. Most Counties could afford to pay their players more in view of the boom in cricket gates last season, but there is a certain amount of prestige that goes with playing for a County, and the raising of wages may not be considered necessary.

It is a well-known fact, however, that a man cannot retire comfortably on prestige, and so how long such a position will last is a matter for conjecture, especially when most League players are also assured of jobs after their playing days are finished. It used to be the practice for a League player to make some spare money by coaching the younger members of the club in his spare time, but now the need for extra money is going, and with it the coaching of the youngsters, unless one happens to be particularly outstanding in a match and looks a likely addition to an attractive team.

Considering that League cricket is one of the best methods of grooming a youngster for bigger things, and the fact that promising youngsters may sink into obscurity beneath the glitter of overseas and excounty stars who are engaged primarily to attract the crowds, it does not look to hopeful for the cricketing future of England.—Reuter.