Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/63

44 speaking, a mid-on or short-leg, but one fieldsman who tries to cover both places. There are two short-slips, and the only fieldsman who invariably occupies the same place, whichever end the bowling, is the wicket-keeper. The cause of all this change or development is not entirely the greater perfection of the wicket, it is largely due to the system of boundaries. I cannot quite remember in which year the system of boundaries came into vogue, but I think it came earlier in some grounds than in others, and its introduction was one reason why deep long-leg and square-leg were abolished. The Australians who came over in 1878 caused a development in our bowling system, but that was not the only lesson we learned from them. They never bowled on the leg side, and they had an astonishing wicket-keep; and for the first time in the history of cricket was seen a sight at which the old cricketers rubbed their eyes—a wicket-keep standing up to fast bowling without a long-stop. It was an astonishing feat to do at that time, when the wickets were not so perfect as they are now: it would not have been possible at Lord's before 1872.