General Comments
The tour was clearly regarded as disappointing: "There is no getting away from the fact that the programme arranged for them was too ambitious, and they failed to make any strong appeal to the public. Any hope they might have had of attracting attention, was destroyed by the ill-success that attended them in their early fixtures." and "The plain truth is that the players were not good enough to make the English counties feel in the smallest degree apprehensive. Hence the comparative indifference with which the matches were regarded."
Although Bancroft was selected as the wicket-keeper at least 3 other players kept wicket at various times. Ollivierre was clearly a useful keeper but was too valuable as a bowler.
The running between the wickets was still poor and there were a large number of run outs.
The fielding was also regarded as of low standard. "They must, if they wish to succeed, pick the ball up clean."
Some comments were made about the fielding positions used by the tourists. 'Cricket' reports that "The West Indians still arrange their field in a manner which seems curious to Englishmen, and apparently they do not yet realise that a cover-point 50 and 60 yards from the wicket cannot possibly save the single, and can seldom cover enough ground to save the four. Sometimes they have an extra-cover who, while cover stands close in, fields almost behind him at a distance of forty yards or so; but once or twice at Lord's on Monday in the M.C.C. match the ball went through both men, although it was not hit hard enough to reach the boundary. On the same day Challenor sometimes at point and sometimes in a position which is a sort of "third man close in", fielded brilliantly."
Read more about this topic: West Indian Cricket Team In England In 1906
Famous quotes containing the words general and/or comments:
“Private property is held sacred in all good governments, and particularly in our own. Yet shall the fear of invading it prevent a general from marching his army over a cornfield or burning a house which protects the enemy? A thousand other instances might be cited to show that laws must sometimes be silent when necessity speaks.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Rather would I have the love songs of romantic ages, rather Don Juan and Madame Venus, rather an elopement by ladder and rope on a moonlight night, followed by the father’s curse, mother’s moans, and the moral comments of neighbors, than correctness and propriety measured by yardsticks.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)