Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji II

“ The bowler can do what he likes with the ball. And at times not even the bowler, though a good one, has the slightest idea what the ball will do. It may rise with a huge break over the batsman's head; it may shoot or keep uncommonly low; it may, wonderful to relate, break from leg after receiving an emphatic off-spin from the bowler's hand. In fact, such a wicket is liable to bring about the ignominious downfall of the most powerful batting side imaginable, and that though opposed to bowling which under ordinary conditions would be quite mediocre. ”

“ It has discovered that the waste of time formerly imputed to cricket is really due to frivolity, that cricket is consistent with study, and that the cricketer makes a good schoolmaster. The truth is, that athletics are an integral part and a powerful support of all education: they make it popular. Oxford and Cambridge are like twin stars shedding the light of learning from a distance. The Oxford and Cambridge boat-race and cricket-match are the two anchors of the universities in the heart of the English people. ”

“ The cricketer, if he can be called one, who does not care for fielding, and who only plays for the sake of enjoying batting and bowling, is a very poor sportsman indeed. Fielding is the only branch of the game in which, if one tries hard enough, one can be sure of success. A batsman may get bowled first ball, a bowler may be quilted all over the field without getting a wicket, but both can redeem themselves by good fielding, which is enough by itself to render a man worth his place on a side. A bad field is an eyesore to spectators and a millstone round the neck of his side. ”

“ But you can see what a ground for a hit it must have been in the old days, when David Harris, after infinite care, pitched his wickets on its turf. The view invigorates: but woe to the fieldsman who puts the pageantry of hill and cloud before the zest of cricket. A ball hit with any power—cut, as Beldham used to cut them, with "the speed of thought"—would, once it passed him, travel to the roots of the surrounding mountains. ”

“ There is a certain class of batsmen nowadays who sacrifice effectiveness in order to attain what is called a pretty style. But a style which is not so effective as it might be can hardly claim to be either good or beautiful. Of course a good style is often beautiful—in fact, more often so than not. When a stroke is made with ease and grace, it usually means that the batsman has acquired a complete mastery of the art. But it is a great mistake to get into the habit of putting the bat where there is no ball, simply with a view to making strokes that are pretty. ”

“ There is no more entrancing sport than cricket, and nowhere does cricket present itself in a more entrancing form than at Cambridge, The best of grounds, the snuggest of pavilions, and the most charming sociality are to be found everywhere; and there is cricket of every kind, whether for the crack 'Varsity bat or bowler, whose county is sighing for the Long Vac, or for the fifth-rate cricketer, who never achieved any greater distinction than getting his "house" cap at school: every class and kind is amply catered for. ”

“ All good things done well are beautiful. There is much more in a fine off-drive or a well-bowled ball than the resulting fourer or wicket. I am far from regarding cricket as the most important thing in life; but it is the best game, and games are a very valuable part of life. If a boy were taken to a match in which Mr Lionel Palairet was making runs, and were shown the difference between his strokes and those of the more ordinary performers, he would, I think, go home with something in his mind that would tend to improve his cricket and increase his love of it. ”

“ No game except cricket combines a great amount of science with the advantage of bodily exercise. In fact, the mental and physical qualities required for one who would excel as a cricketer are about equally in demand. When one is at the wickets batting the brain is never at rest—eye and hand must work together. The bowler is your enemy for the time being, to say nothing of the wicket-keeper and fielders; your enemy is doing all he can to overcome you, and you must bring all your mental and physical qualities into play to prevent him. ”

“ Nervousness usually comes either from lack of confidence or from a desire to do oneself justice in some particular match. Few batsmen have been lucky enough to feel quite comfortable the first time they played in school or university matches, to say nothing of county matches and Gentlemen v. Players. A player feels as if the eyes of the whole world are upon him, and that he owes his side a certain amount of runs. In addition, he is keen to do himself justice. It is not difficult to see that the terrors of bowling increase with the batsman's desire not to get out. ”

“ But there is this to be noted: success in batting or bowling cannot fail to combine the advantage of the whole eleven with the pleasure of the individual. A batsman or a bowler feels he is doing something by his own efforts and to his own credit. A fieldsman, on the contrary, has in a certain sense no individual existence; he is a subordinate part of a whole. He is point or slip or mid-off, not Smith or Jones or Robinson. The conditions of the game practically make selfish fielding an impossibility. A man cannot field "on his own" as he can bat or bowl. ”

“ Any one who has ever stood behind the wicket will readily understand the vast advantage of knowing what kind of ball the bowler is going to send down. And when one realises that the wicket-keeper is, in virtue of his position, far better able than any one else to see how a batsman is playing, where he is weak and how he can best be got out, it is easy to understand the help a bowler can get from a wicket-keeper who tacitly informs him how things stand and what ought to be done. ”

“ Football is, in my opinion, by far and away the finest game ever known, with the one exception of cricket.
Cricket has also this great advantage over many games—by having eleven men on each side. This must always make a game more interesting than where there are only one or two on a side. When we have eleven-a-side contests we know that a match is never lost till it is won, and a seeming defeat is often turned into a victory by the tail-end at the eleventh hour Cricket is the king of games for players, as it is for spectators who understand the game. ”

“ In batting there is no such disparity; in fact, the amateurs can quite if not more than hold their own, and for this reason: both at the public schools and at the universities far more time and attention are devoted to batting than to bowling. Nor is this surprising, since the process of learning to bat is far more attractive than that of learning to bowl. There is drudgery in both for those who mean to succeed, but moments of pleasure cannot fail to relieve the batsman's early labours, whereas the bowler must be content "to scorn delights and live laborious days." ”

“ Most amateurs take no trouble whatever with their bowling, except in matches. It would be far better if bowling were zealously cultivated during ordinary net-practice. The usual thing is to take up the ball in a lazy, careless fashion, without any attention to the length of run, or indeed to any of the requisites of bowling save sending the ball somehow towards the striker's wicket. Sometimes the bowler takes upon himself to demonstrate the peculiarities in the styles of various great bowlers in a manner which does infinite credit to his imagination but none at all to his power of imitation. ”

“ There is no doubt that a cricketer, man or boy, if he wishes to qualify himself for this onerous duty, must have a love for the game and a proper feeling towards it. It is not easy to be a good umpire, and consequently it is well worth trying to become one.
No one should be chosen as an umpire who is not gifted with perfect eyesight and an accurate sense of hearing. My experience of people is, that they hear and see extraordinary things sometimes. It is to be hoped that all umpires are of a class who see and hear that which is, rather than that which is not. ”

“ Like every other thing worth doing, cricket entails a certain amount of drudgery during the earlier stages of learning the game. But the pleasures inseparable from the use of bat and ball are surely a good enough set-off against this drudgery, especially as the reward of hard work is so apparent in the fine performances of those who have had patience to go through with the preliminary toils and troubles. One can sympathise with the man who has had no opportunity of learning cricket, and with the man who has done his best to become a cricketer but has failed ”

“ The ball must be watched very carefully, but every ball that can be punished should be punished manfully. I do not think that batsmen run out enough at slow bowling or at lobs. For some undiscovered reason, there is a floating idea that running out and rashness are synonymous. As a matter of fact, to run out is often the safest thing one can do. It makes a difficult ball into an easy one, and often enables the batsman to make a forcing-stroke along the ground instead of a risky high-drive. The man who plays cautiously is invariably regarded with reverence and favour by those who know. ”

“ A good captain tries to identify himself so completely with his side, as a whole and in all its parts, that he fields with every fieldsman and bowls every ball with his bowlers. He is, in truth, the soul of his side. ”

“ What of the many men who take up cricket as their profession, and fail to get inside the sacred pale of first-class cricket? Well, an honest hard-working man can always make a living at the game. Nor are the failures relatively more numerous in this profession than in any other. It must not be supposed that these remarks are meant to encourage young fellows to adopt cricket as a profession. For it is to be remembered that the competition is very keen, and that success is impossible without certain natural gifts. ”

“ The Oxford and Cambridge match was at first, perhaps, too much of the former: it is now tending in the direction of the latter.
No human institution is perfect: it will always tend to excess or defect. But how nearly perfect in its own way is cricket, and especially Oxford and Cambridge cricket! It is a game which keeps boys out of mischief. It is a training of youth for a manly life. It lays up a store of strength and health against old age. It makes individual men lifelong friends. It unites whole schools and universities. ”

“ It is sound advice to fielders, so to watch every ball bowled as if it were to be hit to them. The value of a quick start cannot be overestimated. Often an apparently impossible catch is easily secured because the fielder was ready to start. Surely it is not much to ask of a fieldsman always to be ready. Yet how few really are! The difference in the behaviour of a side during the first innings of their opponents, and during the second when matters are approaching a crisis, is a study in human nature. ”

“ There is an element of the heroic in cricket which is not found in other games, at least so it strikes me. I can imagine Agamemnon, Achilles, and their peers not unbecomingly engaged in a cricket-match. There is nothing small or mean in the game itself, though it must be confessed that degrading elements are sometimes imported into it by its less high-minded exponents. Boys should try, too, of themselves to find out what there is in cricket besides runs and wickets. There is much indeed. There is a charm that is too subtle to be thought out and expressed, though it can be felt and enjoyed. ”

“ A little common-sense and discretion will usually lead an umpire to a fair decision. In cricket, as in everything else, in the absence of distinct rules all points are decided by equity, and by equity we mean the dictates of common-sense and fairness.
The little I have said about umpires and umpiring is sufficient to show that an intimate knowledge of the rules is absolutely necessary. The sooner a boy who hopes to become a cricketer makes himself familiar with the rules of the game, the better it will be for him and his prospects at the game. ”