Page:The Crisis in Cricket and the Leg Before Rule (1928).djvu/30

22 been to drive bowlers to try monkey tricks, googlies and such­ like, which do undoubtedly get wickets. But the number of balls of every variety of bad length is enormous, and they are most expensive. Mailey and Grimmett are probably the two best of these bowlers and they had to carry the last Australian Eleven on their shoulders in 1926. In the five Test Matches in England in 1926 Mailey's record was 14 wickets for 42 runs per wicket, and Grimmett's 13 for 31, while in Australian Inter-State Matches in 1926-7 Mailey's 23 wickets cost 39 runs each and Grimmett's 27, 41. As long as conditions make batting so easy, the monkey trick bowlers will continue, because they get more wickets, but the scoring will be enormous.

It has been said by some that a proof of the decadence of modern bowling is the large scoring of bad batsmen, and it must be admitted that compared with old days it is very large indeed. In Australia, the tail get more than the head did fifty years ago, either in England or Australia. But itis more than probable that in England, at any rate, this is due largely to the fact that after five or six wickets have fallen, the bowlers are thoroughly worn out because of the huge scoring of the first batsmen, and because modern wickets are so easy that very few batsmen are bad in the sense that they are unable to score. Excluding 1927, first-wicket partnerships alone since 1919 have made one, two, three or four centuries about thirty-four times. Bowlers, especially fast ones, get thoroughly tired and those who throw all the blame on the unfortunate bowlers forget this. Bowling fast is tremendously hard work, and when our friends mention the name of the great Tom Richardson they