CRICKET TALENT

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19765, 21 December 1935, Page 22 (Supplement)

CRICKET TALENT

SOUTH AFRICA’S SUCCESS. MORE APPARENT THAN REAL. NEVILLE CARDUS’ OPINION. [The success of the South African cricketers in England this year at the expense of the Home talent, comingafter Australia’s triumph the previous year, has evoked suggestions that English cricket is at a low ebb. In the following article Neville Cardus Indicates that, in bis opinion, the lack of talent is more apparent' than roal.] Any patient reader will bear with me, I am sure, while I write another, and last article on this summer’s Test matches, states Neville Cardus in the English Feild. But before I- come to it. let me praise a great piece of cricket which occurred at Dover on the same afternoon that saw England struggling nobly at the Oval to achieve a decisive counter-attack. This piece of cricket did not get the recognition it deserve'd; after all, the deed was performed only by Lancashire. Kent declared, leading the county of any birth with 396 to score for victory in five hours in the fourth innings on the third clay or a Dover wicket. Lancashire jumped to Chapman’s . challenge; Iddon cut and drove 141 in 150 minutes. Yet the other day, when 1 mentioned to a London lover of cricket the name of Iddon as a batsman who still might play with honour and distinction for England; I received the retort: “ Oh, but Iddon —really, he would send the game to sleep at once!” Whether or not Iddon is a Test match player need not be discussed here; but there is, 1 fancy, a certain young bowler in the Lancashire eleven to-day who, before ho is a year older, will be in the running for a place in the next England side for Australia. His name is Pollard; possibly the Intelligentsia at Lord's have not yet noticed Pollard’s existence. He is the best medium-to-fast bowler I have seen in this country since those first fresh and wonderful days of Maurice Tate. His length and keen pace from the pitch would have stopped a deal of the DaltonLangton hitting on the Monday of the Oval Test match —and It was that hitting which deprived us of a share in the rubber. I have no use for the fashionable game of baiting the selection committee. My own acquaintance with Messrs Warner, Perrin, and Hlgson convinces me that they are not less fond of cricket than the rest of us, not less anxious to see England victorious, and not more noticeably stuI pid and ignorant before the event than the world at large. Blunders were certainly made in the picking of the England elevens; Robins was left cut ot the Lord’s match on a wicket “made" for him. Tate was 'called ! back to bowl at Old Trafford, of all i places. Farrimond was preferred at ! Lord’s to Ames or Duckworth I But (he fact has not been generally commented upon that the selection committee achieved at times wisdom as well ns congenital folly. They declined to be moved by the outcry to "drop Hammond;” they kept faith in Lcyland when he was not doing well for his county. They were resolute, whether right or wrong, about Verity.

It was not always the fault of the members of the selection committee that South Africa played well. Most Serious Blunder. The most serious of their blunders has so far escaped even the attention of the people who are mainly set upon “baiting” and “exposing" the selection committee. This fault.was technical and, therefore, not easy to discern by the "stunt” fraternity. But it was the identical error which lost us the rubber at the Oval last year against Australia. I hope that the lesson has been taught at last —short fast bowling, dependent on the new ball and on lnswerves and outswerves, is of no avail on a firm pitch. And in no circumstances should three fast bowlers (actual or so-called) be employed. It was pitiful on the Monday morning of the Oval Test match to see Dalton and Langton 'cutting and hooking quick (but not fast) long-hops at

their sweet will —during the very period of the South African innings when it was urgent that England should keep down the runs. In every attack, especially for the purposes of three-day cricket, there should be a sound basis of good length. Shock taoties are well enough at one end of the wicket, but not at two; somebody all ;the time should be wearing out the batsmen’s patience at one end and making them risk strokes at the other end, through sheer need to keep the matoh moving.

The England team for Australia next autumn will not be complete it it lacks at least 'one hardworking medium-paced bowler, a man of sturdy build and as strong in the heart, who can howl for hours, gel some pace off the pitch and perform the necessary if utilitarian job of keeping one end "tight.” 1 have suggested earlier in this article the cricketer who, iu my opinion, is likely to provide the next England eleven with reliable "stock” bowling- There are others — and whether they are Test match giants by natural' birthright or not. they must be given a trial. We cannot go on 'much longer living on the old names and complaining that so-and-so is unlucky, it is usually the man who is not good enough who is unlucky in this world. Congratulations to Wade. Wade and his team deserve the. heartiest congratulations. They came to us last April to a welcome of frlepdly patronage. They were cheered and taken to our hearts for their “jolly” sportsmanship. “ Here are a band of ‘bright’ cricketers,” we said; "not like the grim Australians!” The joke of the season is that the South Africans once they got a vlotory in hand, stone-walled at Leeds, Manchester and —occasionally—at the Oval with an austerity and ruthlessness -compared with which Bradman, Ponsford, McCabe and the rest were so many barnstorming boundary smashers. ' There is no disputing that Yorkshire -are fit and proper county champions once again. That surprising defeat by -Essex -remains as inexplicable as it seemed at the time, when it lent colour to the theory that a battery of fast bowlers such as Essex were able to produce was the essence of matchwinning attack, writes F. I. Wilson in the Field. The Yorkshire batting then showed unsuspected weaknesses against fast bowling, and, throughout the season it has not. reflected the consistence of the champion sides of 1931, 1932 and 1933.. They owe a tremendous lot to the bowling of Bowes and Verity, who at the moment head the averages and are as likely as not to stay there. They have between them bowled many more overs and taken many more wickets than any other two -county bowlers, easily surpassing their last year’s records. And once more we have seen Yorkshire setting an example of efTt■ciency in the field. But what we do still miss in the Yorkshire team is the

glamour of personalities like Hirst. Dennett, Robinson or Rhodes.

Organised Stability.

'For myself, I prefer the human frailties and brilliancies of a side like Kent to the organised stability of teams like Yorkshire. It is a point worth nothing that the north has enjoyed almost a monopoly of the county championship sinoe the war. Middlesex won it in 1920 and 1921, and Notts won it in 1929; in the remaining 14 years Yorkshire have Seen champions nine times and Lancashire five times. There was not this preponderance of northern champions before the war. It seems that Notts have a good bowler in the making in Woodhead, who combined accuracy with pace so well against Warwickshire that he took six wickets for 28 in the first innings. New to the NofTs ground staff last season, he played in two or three matches and took 10 wickets for 379 runs. Warwickshire’s recovery in the second innings was another contribution to the week’s tall scoring —290 for three Wyatt and Santall all showing what true batsmen they can be. For sheer good bowling I should hand the palm to that old Hampshire stalwart Kennedy, whose return to the county side lias much improved its fortunes. Taking nine wickets for 59 against Norlhants, he bowled as many as 17 maiden overs out of 50, and in the next match against Essex, he bowled 12 maidens out of 41 overs for 94 runs and six wickets. A fine tribute to the accuracy and command of length that have always been among Kennedy’s great assets. Young medium pace bowlers might still learn a lot from Kennedy’s methods.