[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] BIR,—The gentleman who wrote
to your paper under the name of "An Outsider" (Spectator, July 24th) seems to have drawn his impressions of school cricket from a poor source. I know the system on which several of our Northern schools run their cricket, but I have never found boys of fifteen play- ing a pick-up game without a school colour to see that there is no foolery or slackness. Moreover, if the batsmen play cricket there can be little of the sleeping in the field that be complains of. It is the fault of the boys themselves that they "slack." They are net keen and do not like the game. To a poor player who dislikes the game, cricket cannot be anything but dull. The fact of the matter is that the game is played too hard, and with too much looking to improving the good players and leaving the poorer to them- selves. Whether the boy likes it or not he must play. He dislikes making no runs, he hates being laughed at for poor fielding; the captain and committee and the games-master confine themselves to coaching boys who show promise and their own proteges. The mediocre player is left to himself. Naturally he tries to avoid playing in conspicuous places in the field, fearing ridicule. The mistake lies in the game becoming more of a task than a pastime; and this is to be traced in great measure to the conduct of the coaches, as I have mentioned above, who are often guilty of pure favouritism
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