Page:The Crisis in Cricket and the Leg Before Rule (1928).djvu/15

Rh carry away in our minds, at the end of the so-called match, is a confused impression of tired bowlers and field, and an orgy of batting—as many think, all for nothing. Gone, to a very large extent, are the keen and close finishes, and unless something is done, three-day matches will be found to be not sufficient, as is the case already in Australia, where a whole week will soon be not enough. In Mr. Gilligan's last tour in Australia three out of the five Test matches ran into the seventh day.

Some day, perhaps suddenly, the public will get tired of all this. In 1887 at the historical first meeting of the County Cricket Council, when a change in the l.b.w. rule was discussed, Mr. Wolstenholme, the secretary of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club, said it was important to alter the rule was soon as possible; "The attendances of the public were becoming smaller year by year, and if the practice continued the interest in cricket, as far as the North of England was concerned, would materially diminish." In 1901 the Leyton ground was a batsman's paradise, and Essex played five consecutive drawn matches all due to huge scoring. Wisden, of 1902, in describing the Essex and Lancashire match played for Carpenter's benefit said, "The long succession of drawn games had lessened the interest of the public in cricket at Leyton, and the attendance on the occasion of Carpenter's benefit was certainly disappointing." These two statements touch finance, and should make some County Committees think seriously.

As everybody knows the great County matches in the North of England are the two great annual struggles between Yorkshire and Lancashire, and the six matches played in