Page:The Crisis in Cricket and the Leg Before Rule (1928).djvu/69



T is both curious and interesting to see how greatly our old friends l.b.w. and leg play, as taught in the text­ books by Mr. Knight in the Badminton, and by Mr. Warner and others, has influenced all modern cricket. In the last chapter it was said, and I think truly, that bowlers of the pace of Richardson, Kortright and others, who bowled tremendously fast on wickets prepared naturally by mowing, rolling and watering alone, did not hurt batsmen; why then were marl, top dressing and, for all I know, other artificial methods introduced at all? Batsmen did not complain, and though drawn matches were tolerably frequent, they were not so common as they are now. My own belief is that groundsmen, always on the alert for any new means whereby wickets should be made easier, discovered marl somewhere about 1897-9, and batsmen more and more developed what was introduced by Shrewsbury, leg play and the abuse of the l.b.w. rule and by slow degrees the two eyed stance and the J. W. Hearne position. All this was known to the county captains and we learn from the 1902 When that they asked the M.C.C. to confirm their resolu­tions, one of which was that artificial preparation was undesirable. Nothing definite or permanent was done and very likely this gave a great impetus to the modern style