Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/294

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UNFAIR-BOWLING QUESTION
247

certainty that any of them has done so. Why should they not have the benefit of the doubt? If such benefit is withheld, it should perhaps be in the case of Mold and Jones, whose bowling might become dangerous owing to its great pace.

One last growl from an old cricketer, and an appeal to batsmen. It seems to me that the broad interests of the game are being overlooked owing to the great preponderance of the batsmen over the bowlers. Batsmen as a class seem to be against any alteration of the law which would tend to diminish the run-getting. This question of throwing is one symptom, the refusal of the captains to sanction any alteration of the rules respecting leg before wicket is another, and speaking generally, the agitation against excessive run-getting and drawn matches seem to arise and be carried on by those whom I will call the enlightened section of the public. I mean those whose memories carry them back for some years, and those cricketers of all ages whose object in going to see cricket is to see a grand game all round; good, and therefore rather difficult