Cricket batsman

“ Obviously the best chance of making runs is to hit the ball where there are no fields. Nearly the whole of the on side is open, and if one of the off balls is suitable, either by being bowled a little short or too far up, the batsman will sweep it round without a moment's hesitation. Unorthodox this may be, but he will have accomplished five great and useful feats—he will have delighted himself, added to his score, disconcerted the fields, enraged the bowler, and set the opposite captain thinking. ”

“ He is the perfect batsman referred to on several occasions, who hits every ball which does not threaten his wicket, and many that do. His powerful physique, eagle eye, and energetic mind have given him a place beyond his companions. That instinctive knowledge of the presence of a man immediately behind him who will down his wicket with a smile of satisfaction, must be forever present in the mind of the batter. American cricketers may ignore him, but when America meets her English competitor and hopes for the like convenient ignorance, she is sure to have her pride injured. ”

“ A spectator picks the ball up, chucks it to the expectant field, who dribbles it along the ground to the bowler, while the batsman, having had his smack, saunters about in the most unconcerned way and prepares for the next ball. Cricketers well understand that this saving of breath to a batsman is an enormous advantage; he is enabled to stand quite cool and collected in his ground, and hit away without, as a rule, having to run more than two runs, while the bowlers and field are perspiring away in their efforts to get the side out. ”

“ It is for the rising generation either to alter the law or to learn the art of getting in front of the wicket when the ball does not pitch straight.
It is in vain to lament over long scores and unfinished matches, over dearth of bowlers and slackness in the field, whilst all the time we are doing everything we can to make matters easier and easier for the batsman, giving him perfect wickets, on which he can score loo runs without getting out of breath, devoting his legs to the new purpose of systematically intercepting the more difficult balls. ”

“ BATTING. An expert batsman experiences unspeakable pleasure during his innings. Cricketers glory in him, his friends delight in him, and the sweetest smile of his best girl emphasizes his triumph.
Nearly every young American learns base ball before cricket. When he first stands before a wicket, he is almost paralysed by the fear of losing it. Nothing corresponding to it appears upon the diamond. When his wicket has been successfully attacked a few times he is disheartened, and is likely to abandon cricket and return to his first love. This is a critical period in the history of the beginner. ”

“ They have less waiting for their innings, and consequently less of that restless nervousness from which few men are free; they have the best of the wicket; they have often loosish bowling just at first, before the bowlers have warmed to their work; and, last but certainly not least, they are batting a new ball. Few people realise what a difference a new ball makes to the batsman; it goes cleaner and firmer off the bat than an old one, and, what is better than all, a hard new ball is much more difficult to twist than one that has had a hundred runs made off it. ”

“ Whenever a batsman is playing 'yorkers' by chopping down on them inside his crease, it is as certain as can be that he is not at all at home with them, and the bowler may hope for success with every one he tries. Even if the bat does come down on a 'yorker' in the crease at the last moment, it often dribbles on with the spin, and just dislodges the bails. The only proper, workmanlike way to deal with 'yorkers' is to play them forward. The bat should be thrust forward directly the ball is seen to be right up to the batsman, and then it cannot fail to be stopped. ”

“ Let us for a moment watch a batsman plant himself before the wicket as though with the determination to stay there the remainder of the day. His mental purpose becomes his weakness, for no preconceived idea of what one’s opponent will do is at all likely to occur. The cricketer is always a creature of circumstances over which he usually has little or no control, but of which he must be ever ready to take immediate advantage. ”

“ But we have many aggressive batters, who settle down into first-rate bats when in the presence of a standard wicket keeper. We say most of them, advisedly, for a star will shine, wicket keeper, or no wicket keeper. The true aggressive batsman is a combination of cause and effect which no amount of ambition can even hope to imitate. Brain, guiding muscle, with discipline resulting from long and patient training. He can take almost any liberty with the bowler, he can play inside or outside his crease, for the dangerous ball never reaches the wicket keeper. ”

“ A batsman is required to keep up his wicket and also to score runs for his side. It is possible to do the former without doing the latter, but not the latter without the former. A batsman must be able to work his eyes, hands, legs, and body in perfect unison. To make 50 or even 20 runs, no small amount of pluck, patience, resource, physical strength, and condition is needed. This applies to any ordinary game of cricket. In first-class cricket a batsman is put to an even more exacting test; for the higher the standard of skill, the more is required in every way of the performer. ”

“ In other words, batting is, besides being more difficult in itself than bowling and fielding, far more subject to chance. A bowler may bowl a bad ball or a fielder drop a catch without losing all chance of retrieving himself. One bad stroke, and a batsman is out once and for all. Of course batsmen often have good luck in being missed in the field or being beaten by the ball without being bowled ”

“ The late or back cut is beautiful as well as the safest and most graceful hit in the repertoire of the batsman. But he must posess experience of no mean order to guide the bat to strike the ball, which is moving by him at a double acute angle and usually at a rapid rate; for instead of facing the ball and meeting it with his bat as in the forward and square off cut, he turns his person two-thirds around towards the wicket keeper using his left foot for a pivot. Then he takes a long stride with his right towards short slip, which moves him in the direction of the motion of the ball. ”

“ It is necessary to be able with the utmost certainty and rapidity to gather in the hands a ball hit along or on to the ground, and to return it equally surely and swiftly to either wicket, in order that as few runs as possible may be scored and the batsman may be run out should a chance occur. Should the ball be hit into the air without touching the ground, every imaginable attempt should be made to bring it to hand and keep it there, in order that the batsman may be caught out. Every man in the field, without exception, should be able to carry out these requirements. ”

“ In like manner in back play the youngster puts his right leg up to his bat, and this is an innovation about which it may be said that cricket would be improved if it was no longer the fashion. In fact, the modern idea is that, failing the bat, the legs must protect the wicket; and we say most emphatically that this is against the spirit of the rules and practice of cricket. One hears a batsman who has been given out l.b.w. come away from the wicket and talk as if he were the victim of the greatest hardship. And why? Because he maintains that the ball pitched perhaps an inch off the off stump. ”

“ As to-day a person may be a clergyman or a surgeon or a physician, but is seldom a healer of the whole patient, so in Cricket a person will be a batsman or a bowler without any noticeable ambition to enlarge his sphere of skill. In batting he may even be a fast-wicket batsman, failing regularly on caked wickets. For fielding he has no enthusiasm; or, if he is a fielder, he is perhaps good either at catching or at picking up or at throwing in—not at all. ”

“ No doubt the batsman feels pride and pleasure in the getting of runs; but if he is much of a hitter he must be in wondrous training if, after having had to run 80 runs in 45 minutes or thereabouts, he does not feel just a bit fagged; and everybody knows that a real fine ball is likely to get out a man in this condition. What we complain of now is that a batsman may be four hours at the wicket and never once feel even out of breath. ”

“ The men who can do this are the chosen few. Where one man can show scientific cricket on soft, caking grounds, ten at least can be found who can play and hit bowling when the wicket is hard and fast. There are two sorts of players whose methods are entirely different and entirely opposite. The really scientific batsman who plays correct and orthodox cricket, watching every ball with the eye of a hawk, keeping his left shoulder well forward and thereby getting well over the bumping ball, holding the bat, when occasion demands, loosely—such a bat hardly exists. ”

“ The ball, not being straight, cannot be met with the full face of the bat, and consequently, unless the batsman puts his left leg right across the wicket, he must, in playing it, lift it up in the air, when it is probably captured by cover-point or mid-off. If this ball can be made to go ever so little from the leg side after it has pitched it becomes more deadly, as then there is a much greater chance of the batsman being unable to get over the ball sufficiently to keep it along the ground. ”

“ A batsman can generally tell what the wicket is going to do even before he begins batting, the state of the weather for a week previous and the reputation of the ground will be enough; and he will go in with a light heart and look forward to a pleasant hour. There are many sorts of players. There is the batsman whose temperament, if he is not sure about the length of a ball, will lead him to try a smack, while another will play at the same ball carefully. ”

“ Few men can throw far, but everyone can throw quickly, and that is what prevents batsmen from running. There is a moment which decides a batsman whether he can manage to secure another run or not. It is just when a fieldsman, having run some way after the ball, and having his back turned to the wicket, is stooping to pick up preparatory to throwing in. ”

“ But on the other hand, on rough grounds much is left to chance and luck; cricket, as played on a billiard-table wicket certainly favours the batsman, but it admits of a brilliancy and finish in the matter of style that are impossible on the old-fashioned wicket. Whilst the modern bowler has learnt extraordinary accuracy of pitch, the batsman has perfected the art of "timing" the ball. ”

“ The fielder is always on exhibition in the proportion of eleven to one batter, so that his opportunities for the display of either good or bad play are many. If cricketers will bring to their game the excellent qualities displayed upon the diamond, theirs will soon be recognized as the popular game. Greater interest is felt in fine fielding than in brilliant batting by the spectator, though from a cricketers standpoint a finished batsman will always be the favorite. There seems no excuse for poor fielding unless to permit the second-rate bat to score double figures. ”

“ The ball which is too short for the player to play forward to with his bat at the proper slant must be played back and not forward. To be a good judge of a ball's length is a source of strength in any player, and a strictly accurate player seldom makes the mistake of playing forward when he ought to play back, and vice versâ. In cricket, however, poor human nature is apt to err oftener perhaps than in most walks of life, and the question may now be asked, What is the batsman to do when he finds himself playing forward, but unable to smother the ball at the pitch? ”

“ The batsman gets wary, and when the ball is pitched on his leg side gets before his stumps to protect them, and hangs his bat in front of him, thereby rendering the loss of his wicket extremely improbable; and when it is pitched straight for the middle stump or on the off side, knowing the danger of a hit at the pitch of this ball, he will simply satisfy himself with protecting his stumps with his legs, and with letting the ball pass the off stump without further protest. ”

“ The narrower bat would not tempt men not to hit, but would rather have the contrary effect. It would undoubtedly give the bowlers' good balls a better chance of hitting the wicket or being snicked into short-slip's hands. A really good batsman possessed of a good eye and quick power of wrist would still be able to get runs, though not to the same extent, but the smaller bat would, however, undoubtedly cripple the inferior batsmen—a consummation I humbly think ought to be desired by everybody who has the true interests of the game at heart. ”

“ The unhappy batsman makes one bad stroke and his wicket is lost, and he has possibly no further chance in the match. But though the bowler may bowl a wide one ball he may take a wicket the next, and we believe that these all-round players find more enjoyment in cricket than the man who only bats. To their credit be it said that at no previous period have the professionals combined the two so much as they do at the time of writing, and we congratulate Ulyett, Bates, Peel, Barnes, Flowers, Barlow, Briggs, Lohmann, George Hearne, Jesse Hide, and Abel accordingly. ”

“ Unless he can vary his intention to thwart the batsman by the delivery of unexpected and difficult balls, he cannot expect to rank among the best, nor will he be called a head bowler. The only ball which the bowler can depend upon for uniform good results, strikes the turf outside the reach of the batter. Good batsmen safely block or hit any ball falling within six feet of the crease, some reach a ball which drops eight feet or more from the crease. But every batsman has a limit when the wicket keeper is in place. ”