Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/96

Rh ten years. This enables the authorities to choose their best elevens with greater facility, as they have opportunities of observing each man's skill, and there are not, of course, nearly so many players. Lastly, the Australians are our own flesh and blood, and have the same intense keenness for the game, which may be said to have been bred in them.

Each country, as will be shown later on, has learned a great deal from the other; but there is one essential difference between the two countries which must always exist, and that is the question of climate and its effect on wickets. The Australian wickets are so perfect, because for cricket purposes they may be said never to have rain, and the result is hard, fast, and deadly true ground. In England in 1899 we have had very much the same sort of wicket, but taking a series of years there is considerable variety in this country. This fact explains the phenomenon: English batting is on the whole more elastic in its nature, and can adapt itself to more different varieties of wickets, than the Australian. The same cause has made the Australian bowling better than the English. In