Page:A "Bawl" for American Cricket.djvu/40

 cricket, that when attention is called to the importance of "stumping", and to the fact that the aggressive batter glories in a wicket keeper whose position is twenty feet behind the wicket, and whose arms are of normal length, that the wicket keeper will soon become a real, rather than an imaginary personage upon the cricket field; and that he will again be seen close behind his wicket, forcing the batsman to display his prowess within his crease, or suffer the penalty. Let us predict that when this desirable result is accomplished, bowlers will be found to rely upon pitch and curve, rather than upon speed, and that skill will depend more upon brain than muscle. His position must always be such, that the wicket is between himself and the approaching ball, for he cannot run the risk of trying to "down" a wicket which he cannot see, neither can he spare the time to turn around, for the run is short and the runner may be a "sprinter".

The object of the bowler should be either to bowl the wicket; to have a batter give a chance for a catch; or, to force the batter to leave his ground for a stump. Unless he can vary his intention to thwart the batsman by the delivery of unexpected and difficult balls, he cannot expect to rank among the best, nor will he be called a head bowler. The only ball which the bowler can depend upon for uniform good results, strikes the turf outside the reach of the batter. Good batsmen safely block or hit any ball falling within six feet of the crease, some reach a ball which drops eight feet or more from the crease. But every batsman has a limit when the wicket keeper is in place. That spot, a little nearer the bowler than this limit is known as the "pitch" or "length."