The first Test match -between England and the West Indian
cricket team began at Lord's on Saturday. There was an enormous crowd to welcome the visitors, who had already excited great interest and won popularity in advance by their earlier play in this country. The surprise is not that they were beaten by an innings but that they showed themselves fully worthy to meet a representative English team. Mr. Nunes, the white captain, is a first-rate wicket-keeper and a thoroughly efficient captain. The untiring Constantine is a really magnificent player, batsman and bowler, and others are but little behind him. English teams, not wholly first class, have toured through the West Indies (we think that Lord Hawke captained the first), but it is a revelation here that a team could be brought over fit to meet all England in a Test Match. It proves that our national game, always the best leveller " in the world, has a wonderful place in those islands in the old Spanish Main which are now within the Empire. The keenness and devotion to the game needed to produce such a team from the comparatively small populations of scattered islands (and to wipe out the colour bar) must be intense. Will the single-wicket match in which Mr. Jingle, Sir Thomas Blazo, and Quanko Samba took part cease to be the most famous of West Indian games * * * *
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