Notes by the Editor

At their Meeting at Lord"s on December 8th, at which among other business they selected the county umpires for 1903, the captains of the First-class Counties carried two proposals. One that Test matches in England should in future be reduced from five to three, with a week set apart for each game, and the other that by using thicker stumps the wicket should be increased in width from eight to nine inches. Inasmuch as the Australians in all probability will not be here again till 1905 the first proposition is not a very urgent matter. Whether it will be considered by the Marylebone Club or be allowed to stand over till the formation of a new Board of Control for Test matches I do not know. There seems to be a strong feeling in favour of playing Test games in this country out to a finish, irrespective of the time they occupy, and if our leading players are at one with the Australians in wishing the plan to be adopted there is not much use in raising objections. Personally, however, I am very doubtful of the wisdom of making cricket altogether independent of a time limit. Desirable as it is to see one side or the other victorious, the result at cricket is not everything, and from what I have read of the long games in Australia, extending sometimes into the sixth day, they are not so interesting as our three day matches, the advantage derived from avoiding risks leading batsmen, even on perfect wickets, to play with laborious care. Given a fine day and a lively pitch batting of the stonewalling kind is emphatically not the best of cricket, and when England and Australia meet one would always like, irrespective of the result, to see the game at its highest point of excellence.

The question of interference with county cricket hardly enters into the discussion, as three matches with a week allotted to each might take up more time than the five games played last season and in 1899. I am not hopeful of seeing such a method adopted, but personally I would rather keep to the five matches with a special provision that, if the result of the rubber depended on it, the fifth one should be played to a finish. Cricket has already suffered to some extent from the contrast to Association Football, with its hour and a half of concentrated excitement, and there is I think a danger in admitting the principle of devoting more than three days to any match. Time being of no consequence, the game would, I fear, lose its brilliant qualities and become little more than a matter of endurance. However, there is no need just now to discuss the question further. So far as one can tell, no decision need be come to till the time arrives for arranging the fixtures for 1905.

The proposal as to widening the wicket is a different business altogether, and far more serious. It was carried by the captains by a large, though not unanimous, vote, and will in due course come first before the cricket sub-committee of the M.C.C. and then before the full committee. Without wishing to pose as an opponent of all change I hope sincerely that the proposal will not be entertained by the Marylebone Club. Cricket should be the same game all the world over, and I hold very strongly to the view that as regards the actual implements employed no alteration should be made without long and exhaustive experiment. There is too great a tendency just now to treat the game exclusively from the point of view of first-class players. Looking at the question from a purely commercial standpoint, the buying of new stumps by all the clubs in the world would be a heavy item, and I do not see that the gain would be at all in proportion to the trouble and expense involved. The chief objection, however, is to anything that savours of tinkering with the greatest of outdoor games. Before they begin to alter the implements employed there are many things that our authorities can do. Difficult as the matter is some strict limit might be fixed to the preparation of wickets, and it might even be made a penal offence for batsmen to deliberately use their legs as weapons of defence. W. Richards, one of the regular county umpires, in a recent letter to the Sportsman said that the wide wicket would offer batsmen a temptation to play even more with their legs than they do now, and there is a good deal in his contention.

After the section of Wisden dealing with Kent cricket had gone to press, the announcement was made that Mr. J. R. Mason had found himself compelled to resign the captaincy of the Kent eleven. The blow is perhaps the heaviest that the county could have sustained. Mr. Mason has for years been the mainstay of the team and it is impossible to see how he can be replaced. One of the most deservedly popular of players he will carry with him into his enforced retirement the good wishes of all who have had the pleasure of knowing him.

One last word as to the cricket of 1902. English bowling all round was more uniformly fair and above suspicion than in any season during the last twenty-five years, further proof being afforded of the good results brought about by the action of the county captains at their famous meeting in December, 1900.