Page:Cricket (Steel, Lyttelton).djvu/434

402 victory. The ideal match is a match that does not last more than two days, where the wicket has got a bit of devil in it, where no individual innings realises more than 80 runs, no one complete innings exceeds 200 runs, where the side that have to go in for the fourth innings must get about 180 runs to win, and win the match by two or three wickets or lose it by 15 or 20 runs. This is genuine cricket, and far better worth seeing than the type of matches so often played in 1887.

We will first consider a few points that are not changes in the law, but only consist of a strict observance of the laws as they now stand. Rule 45 is one of a set of rules that are supposed to inform an umpire of his duties, and runs thus: 'They (umpires) shall allow two minutes for each striker to come in, and ten minutes between each innings. When they shall call play, the side refusing to play shall lose the match.' Here is a perfectly straight forward rule that we do not hesitate to say is ignored as completely as if it was not a rule at all. No doubt it was not required in former days, when individual scores of 50 did not occur oftener than hundreds do now. There was no hurry then. Even in fine weather very few matches lasted into the third day, and no doubt a certain laxity crept into the system. But the rule was in existence, nevertheless, and is still; and surely now is the time for putting it into force.

A few statistical facts may prove how important a feature a tolerable observance of time is in considering how to stop this endless succession of drawn games. Elsewhere it has been pointed out that there has been no drawn match played between Oxford and Cambridge since 1849. There have been plenty of runs got and to spare, but on Lord's a far stricter jurisdiction has been kept in the matter of time than on any other ground.

But even here nobody can affirm that a strict ten minutes is never exceeded for the interval between the innings. It may be taken as a general truth that thirty minutes is frequently allowed to elapse on other grounds; and let us see how many hours' play takes place on a fine August day.