With the first Test Match in Australia now beginning, we
shall see what really is the matter with the M.C.C. team—if anything is. And it plainly is. Australian comment may be ignored, though most of it that I have read has been polite enough It is from the English cricket correspondents with the team that the strictures have come, and certainly there is no ground at this distance for gainsaying any of them. The record of dropped catches has been shocking, and by all accounts both batting and bowling have been well below the level reached by individual members of the team in county matches at home. There is plenty of time for improvement still—though the next five days are the time when it is wanted. In the absence of it a serious inquest into English cricket will be called for. (Per-
haps Scotland could be persuaded to take up the game in earnest.)
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