Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/280



than once in this book allusion has been made to the unhealthy preponderance of the batting element in the game of cricket. People now go to watch a cricket match, not for the sake of seeing a fair duel between bowler and batsman, a close finish, or a decisive result, but merely a batting spectacle. Fast bowlers get worn out prematurely, and are driven to banging the ball down in the hope of the batsman giving catches in the slips; while slow bowlers, in the attempt to bring about impossible breaks, sacrifice length, direction, and spin. The field grows weary, and cricket, instead of being a grand game, becomes a toil and a weariness. Every change that has been made during the last thirty years has, on the whole, been in the direction of handicapping the bowler and favouring the