THE JUBILEE BOOK OF CRICKET.*

IF Clive and Warren Hastings could reappear upon earth at the present moment, there are plenty of matters which would powerfully engage the interest of those statesmen. But for a little quiet relaxation one would dearly like to show them a certain placard which is figuring everywhere just now in the county of Sussex, and soliciting donations for the "Ranji Shilling Fund." Here, one would say to the grave signors, is an Indian Prince who has endeared himself to the English cricket-loving world, even to the point of possessing a pet nickname ; who has scored more runs in a single season than the great " W. G." himself ; whose graceful and brilliant play has roused popular enthusiasm to such a pitch that nothing but a popular testimonial will allay the fever. And, it must he observed, it is not merely Prince Ranjitsinhji's batting that has so excited his admirers ; the fact that he is an Asiatic gives him a hold on the popular imagination which Shrewsbury or Mr. C. T. Studd never approached. The man in the street or in the sixpenny places at the Oval has got it firmly into his head that Prince Ranjitsinhji is a sort of standing evidence of our Empire's indivisibility. Cricket, if you will listen to many moralists, is the cement of Anglo- Saxon dominion. There is a rather amusing tale afloat of a certain Maharajah whose courses occasioned some anxiety to the British Resident. His Highness showed an excessive interest in racing and other sports, which threatened the finances of his principality ; so the Political, like a wise man, held up the shining example of this young Eastern, who was the talk of the hour in London. A famous professional was engaged to spend the winter season in coaching the Maharajah, and the diversion proved admirable. Nothing but cricket was talked of in the Court; the happy professional was heaped with honours, and beguiled hours with telling his pupil of the great deeds done at Lord's or the Oval by the Prince. The Maharajah was inseparable from his professor, took him out tiger shooting and hunting ; and in the intervals of sport a space would be cleared in the jungle and the famous bowler would set himself solemnly to bowl out the potentate as often as diplomacy permitted. Without wishing to pro- nounce upon the political importance of cricket, one may assert freely that Prince Ranjitsinhji has won for himself a name in history. He will go down, alongside of "W. G.," • The .Tutrilee Book of Cricket. By K. S. Raojitei .11i. London: ICackwood and Sons.

among the great spectacular attractions of our day, more sure of remembrance than any but two or three of the best actors and musicians. If there were any doubt about the matter, he has settled it by writing the most monumental book on cricket which has yet appeared. The volume is splendidly got up, and really deserves to rank high as a scientific treatise,—there is no other word for it. English- men have a craze for perfection ; they do not in the least care what they pay for their amusement, so long as they get the best thing that can be had for money. Consider the case of shooting, or the ridiculous prices that men and women pay for cycles on which to ride perhaps fifty miles in a week at eight or ten miles an hour. This instinct has applied itself in particular to cricket, till the main art of playing the game rests upon three or four subsidiary sciences, of which the most important is the manufacture of turf. That has come to such a point that a player, like Prince Ranjitsinhji himself, can import into cricket almost the precision of billiards. Everything which can be thought out about the game has been thought out, and in this book the result of all that thinking is summarised with surprising lucidity. It is the most complete exposition of the theory of cricket which has been given to the world; and, so far as a series of com- plicated acts performed by a quick eye co-operating with the whole body can be explained on paper, they are explained here. Excellent photographic illustrations are also given, which are useful as diagrams, but disappointing from the artistic point of view. Each attitude is only complete with reference to the ball, which is never represented; it is a pity that one or two instantaneous photographs were not obtained of players actually striking the ball.

The book begins with some excellent remarks upon training which is probably more essential in cricket than in any game but football. An ordinary man, living the ordinary life in town, can go into a court and play a game of racquets without feeling unduly fagged; but to go and field out against even two hundred runs is a very trying business if it is the first game of the season. Fielding is treated with becoming gravity ; it is sad to think that the Sasses team scarcely come up to the ideals of its most brilliant member; but Prince Ranjitsinhji preaches by example as well as precept. Several thousand people will remember how his activity broke the most threatening Australian partnership in the final test- match at the Oval last year. Upon one point we permit ourselves to offer a suggestion. Catching can, and should, as he urges, be practised at schools, but the difficulty is to practise slip-catching, the hardest and most important of all. If two or three people stand with a roller between them and throw the ball at it so that it will glance off the sides, a very fair substitute for the bat is pro- vided. Upon bowling there are many excellent remarks, but bowling is one of the congenital mysteries which defy analysis. One might question the truth of his opinion that "action break" (that is, unpremeditated break) from leg does not exist. But his remarks upon batting are what the worlc,, will read with keenest interest; it is perhaps sufficient here to say that they are severely scientific in form. The book despises mere anecdote. Here, for example, is a charac- teristic utterance : "A yorker does not exist absolutely; its existence depends upon some mistake made by the batsman in judging the flight of the ball." Alas for human frailty ! the last time the writer went to see Prince Ranjitsinhji bat he was bowled absolutely by Richardson, and probably found little consolation in the fact that the " yorker " which got him had only a subjective existence. He has an interesting dis- cussion on the possibility of " staleness " for a batsman. Can a batsman, that is, spoil his batting by playing too much P A bowler can easily be overbowled ; but, as Prince Ranjitsinhji shrewdly remarks, it never spoilt any one's batting to make three or four big scores in the same week. "A cricketer, instead of calling himself stale, had better inquire for the real reason of his want of form and remove it if he can."

Probably a good many readers of these columns will think that a man should find something better to do than to make cricket the main object of his existence, as Prince Ranjit- sinhji frankly does. In a passage which has the charm of expressing keenly a genuine emotien, "Cricket," he says, "is worth working at and thinking about. There are few pleasures in the world greater than that of making runs and making them well. A well-timed late cut is as sweet a thing as there is. A big drive, clean and true, gives a satisfaction that cannot be expressed in words." Such real enjoyment almost disarms criticism. And when he comes to speak of the great man whom no cricketer can behold without emo- tion (has he not only last week in his fiftieth year made 131 against Nottingham and got six wickets for 36 runs ?) Prince Ranjitsinhji grows positively lyrical. In a passage, to which we have added the few words necessary to turn it into the more appropriate medium of verse, he declares that "W. G."

is—

Not alone The finest player born, or yet unborn,

But the creator of our modern game.

He turned the old and one-stringed instrument Into a many chorded lyre ; nay, more, In execution his invention equalled, So all of us now have the instrument, But lack his execution. What should be 'We know. alas ! but cannot all perform.

Till W. G. revealed it, no man knew 'What could be made of batting. Bowling's growth Has natural been and gradual ; each great man Added his quota to the sum ; but He Discovered batting ; turned its narrow streams Into one vast and winding Amazon.

It is impossible, we repeat, not to sympathise with the en- thusiasm of such an enthusiast, but we cannot help thinking

that a. good deal of nonsense is talked about cricket, and Prince Ranjitsinhji talks some of it in his final chapter about the development of what he very rightly calls

spectacular cricket in the Victorian Era. He discusses (contemptuously enough) a magazine article in which the

writer has the boldness to suggest that military training gives to Frenchmen and Germans all the advantages which we get from cricket, and does not waste time. We are not

going into that controversy, but we do hold that the extra- ordinary public interest in games which has grown up in the last quarter of a century prolongs mental immaturity in our young men, and makes them indifferent to speculative interests. If a youth during the whole time he is at the University, when he ought to be grappling with "the riddle ol the painful world," thinks of nothing but cricket and football, he is scarcely likely to acquire new intellectual interests when he is plunged into a profession. We have no desire to see a general abolition of professional cricketers ; they are to a great extent our substitute for drill sergeants, fencing. masters, and dancing-masters—not altogether satisfactory substitutes, we hold ; and the most famous of them, those

whom we pay to see performing, rank with jockeys, acro- bats, billiard players, and the lower class of dramatic artists. The most surprising thing in connection with

them is that, considering the immense popularity of the spectacle, they do not command higher pay. Compare Abel's wages—even taking in a benefit match—with a successful jockey's. That they are often very good fellows, and lead what should be a very healthy life, is neither here nor there; they are simply people whom the public pays to amuse it. But when we are asked to admire gentlemen who give u) their whole summer to the task of making a thousand, or if possible, two thousand, runs in first-class cricket, we decline to do so. As cricketers, of course, they are admirable, but if we are asked whether they are people who worthily employ their time, we deny it. It is a harmless amusement, that is the best there is to be said for it; a man with manly ambitions would find better ways of spending his time and money. We will admire, if you like, an Admirable Crichton like Mr. Cyril Wells, who gets the Greek verse prize at Cambridge and at the same time contrives to be one of the best cricketers, and almost the very best football player, of his

day, but who, after his University days, makes only an occa- sional appearance at Lord's. If under the circumstances such a man is able to make big scores the performance shows a very different skill from that of the twenty or thirty gentlemen who play their four or five days a week, year after year, till the most ordinary natural endowment is brought to great mechanical dexterity. Prince Ranjitsinhji differs from them in having a real genius for the game; it is always worth while to do something better than anybody else; he is also a man of real ability, as this book shows ; but upon the ethical question, which he has himself raised, as to whether a gentle- man does well in allowing a game to monopolise his time,

thoughts, and energies, onr conclusion is decidedly adverse to his practice.