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122 of the present size, why should they when the wicket is enlarged, whether by widening or heightening it? The tendency will be to make them greater sticks than ever, and to me it is doubtful if the greater size of the wicket will by itself be sufficient to curtail their innings to an adequate extent. On the present perfect wickets an entirely defensive attitude and policy, unless accompanied by a change in the size of the bat or the l.b.w. rule, will in dry summer weather be sufficient to prolong the game to an undue extent.

I have my doubts also as to whether the widening of the wicket may not make it impossible or very difficult for the short-in-stature player to play with a straight bat to balls on the off stump, unless he moves his right foot, which is against all the canons of sound batting. This objection is not applicable to the reusing of the height of the wicket, and if the wicket is to be enlarged I should prefer it in this form, though "sticking" would be even greater than it is now.

It is on this account that I venture to think that experimenting with the weapons had better take the form of reducing the width of the bat, say a quarter or half an inch, to 4 or 3 inches instead