Why not have four stumps instead of three, and increase the length of the bails from eight inches to ten? The gentlemen forming the Mary-le-bone Club have the power to order this. Will they consider the proposal, and sanction it, seeing that the fair character of their game is at stake? And that this is actually the case I feel perfectly confident, both from my own observation and experience, as well as from the corroboration of men whose judgement I esteem. If, therefore, the present system be persisted in a few years longer, the elegant and scientific game of Cricket will decline into a mere exhibition of rough, coarse horseplay.
I do not speak from prejudice, or from the partiality of one who has been educated in a particular school, however natural that such should be the result of my present opinion; but I can use my eyes, and I can compare notes and points in the two styles of playing; and they who have known me will bear testimony that I have never been accustomed to express myself rashly; I have, therefore, no hesitation in declaring that none of the players who have risen with the new system can compare for a moment in the standard of excellence (clever though they undoubtedly are) with the eminent men already named above, and for the reason I have assigned.
