Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/112

Rh number of total matches, have been unfinished. Matches played on hard, true wickets, with fine weather, show a far larger proportion of drawn matches, and it is hardly saying too much that under such conditions the chances are about even that any first-class match will be drawn. Apart from the fact that this is a state of things that does not exist in any other game, let us see what the effect of this is on the game itself. In the first place, it is a proof that the scoring is enormous, and from this may be gathered the fact that the sense of proportion or balance is gone. No longer do batting and bowling, when the wickets are hard and easy, meet on equal terms. The game has become a question of how many hundreds can be scored; the bowler has been beaten by the mowing machine and the heavy roller; and the only people who can be said to enjoy the game are some of the spectators, who have probably never played cricket, and care only to see hard hitting, and the batsmen themselves. It is no wonder that the busy man, who can only afford to play a game one day in the week, has taken to golf. He has tried cricket, and his captain having lost the toss, he has fielded all