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ENGLISH CRICKET MAS
TOO MANY TESTS
English cricket experts are debating
whether the country has enough first-class
players to field teams in 20 Test matches
during the next 21 months. Most of them
are against Australia and West Indies.
Writing for Associated
Press, Jim Chambers .asks
whether England can find
enough players for such a
big programme.
England, he writes, is
short of fast howlers, leg-
spin' bowlers and aggressive
all-round batsmen.
To carry out the pro-
gramme it seems England
will need two "first"
elevens. Are the players
.here fhr the job? asks
Chambers.
At a rough guess we
would say that there were
not 22 players of world
class in English cricket
last season.
But there were, he said.
many fine prospects, and if
the MOC and the counties
appointed a Test selection
committee for a long term
—not Just for the coming
summer — we feel sure that
with encouragement and
nursing a lot of lads would
make the grade.
The Test selectors would
have to travel hundreds of
miles to watch all the pros
pects in action day after
"day. Consequently, old
J&bgland players who have
already served as wnpiiab
selectors like Leslie Ames,
j«f Kent, and Bob Wyatt,
of Worcestershire, would
be Meal choices for a long-
term committee. Ames and
Wyatt are both fine judges
of a cricketer.
Others who would be
good choices to plan a two-
year campaign are Walter
BoWns, of Middlesex, and
Freddie Brown.
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