Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/113

day and got no innings at all. He may even have been on the side whose captain has won the toss, but the innings has been declared at an end, and he has not been permitted to put on his pads. Two or three Saturdays spent in this way have made him forswear cricket, and small blame to him. Another bad feature in the game produced by this high scoring is that as the dead true wickets have made bowling impotent, so many batsmen who are by no means first class have been hoisted on a pedestal in no way deserved. They have scored and do score hundreds, not because they are good batsmen, but because it is impossible for any but one or two bowlers to bowl difficult balls. In other words, as all bowling has become easy, so all batting has become good. But this is a most unsatisfactory condition of things. To score hundreds and to have a big average of anything over 20 or 25 ought to be in the power or capacity of the few, not of the many; as it is, the fact that any fool is able to get runs simply means drawn matches. Real cricketers who love a close finish and a decisive result can only see their hearts' desire on a wet wicket and un-