Page:The Crisis in Cricket and the Leg Before Rule (1928).djvu/53

Rh timing and every appearance of being an absolute master of the bowling, but as a stylist he could not be compared with those just mentioned. It is said truly that the kick of a cart-horse is not so painful as that of a thoroughbred; there is something slow in the first, the thoroughbred's kick is quick as lightning, like an electric shock; one is admirable, the other not only admirable but fascinating; you dream of it. There was always something of the cart-horse in W.G.'s hitting.

The cut, the leg-hit, straight drive, driving on the off in the direction of cover point, these are what make cricket fascinating. But it may be asked what has this to do with l.b.w., and the reply is that the modern use of the legs to act as a second and first line of defence has largely done away with the beautiful hitting of the former days. Modern batsmen are taught to stand in front of the wicket facing the bowler with their left shoulder pointing to short leg, and from this attitude it is impossible either to cut or drive straight. The one and only real hit possible is the pull or hook to leg unless the batsman is supernaturally quick on his feet. Nobody can say that the pull is anything but a most effective hit; it certainly is, but it is a coarse, vulgar, brutal sort of hit. "Bullock drivers would make it all day," was the remark of a famous cricketer of a generation ago. To make a hard straight drive or cut, it is essential that one of the feet should be practically still; in the cut the foot which is not thrown across is kept still; in the straight drive not only is the right foot fixed, except when the batsman steps out to drive the slower bowlers, but the left shoulder is forward, and that is not visible half so often as it should be.