leads to is a good reason for pausing before selecting as captain anyone who has any pretensions in this branch of the game. It is sometimes, however, impossible for a side to recognise anyone as captain except a bowler. He may be the oldest and most experienced member of the team, or perhaps from his position as a cricketer it may be out of the question to pass him over, and then, of course, the best of a bad job must be made. But a captain who is also a bowler has much heavier responsibilities in the field than one who is not. Even if he happens not to be over-anxious about trundling all day himself, he is apt from shyness and diffidence of his own merits not to put himself on at all—another extreme into which some captains before now have fallen. It would, perhaps, be as well not to mention names of present cricketers in this chapter, but perhaps that well-known and honest player Tom Emmett, of Yorkshire, will not be angry if he is instanced as an example of this modest and retiring class of captains. When he was captain of his county, a post which he probably rejoices to think he does not now hold, it was very seldom that he could be induced to try his hand with the ball. Since his retirement from the onerous duties of captain, he has, perhaps, been the most successful bowler of his side, and still holds his place as one of the best bowlers in England.
The duties of a captain are of two kinds: those out of the field, and those in it, and it is proposed to discuss them in the order named. The first duty of a captain is the choice of his team; but as it so frequently happens, nowadays, that the team is chosen for him by the committee of his county or his club, this topic may be passed over till we discuss the duties of the captains at the Universities and Public Schools.
When the team is chosen, the captain's first duty is to win the toss; and assuming that by the aid of his lucky sixpence he has succeeded in so doing, he should at once decide whether he or his opponent is to begin the batting. It is a very old saying that the side that wins the toss should go in, and it is a very true one. No captain who wins the toss and puts the
