“The weather is hot and sultry and the wicket easy. The crowd is nearing the capacity of the ground”—cable message from Sydney on December 19, in reporting on the Second Cricket Test Match between England and Australia. “The crowd is nearing the capacity of the ground.” How happy would be cricket administrators in New Zealand if they could say the same about attendances in the Dominion!

Why is it that the average Australian is an ardent cricket enthusiast—attending in thousands—while only a very small majority of New Zealanders show more than a passing public interest in the game except at very rare intervals? That is, passing interest other than that aroused by listening-in to a rebroadcast of the Tests in Australia!

Yet in many New Zealand cities it is a common sight to see ten or twelve cricket matches in progress on the one ground every Saturday afternoon—a ground which does not seem large enough to cater for half that number of games. Over two hundred players in action on the ground, and not more than fifty spectators!

Rugby football and wrestling may rightly claim to be the two sports which regularly attract large attendances during the seasons in New Zealand. But the smallness of the numbers viewing other sports may not be altogether an indictment against the sporting attributes of New Zealanders.

It has been said that the principal objection to professionalised sport is that it is apt to breed too many spectators and not enough participants. Perhaps—and it does seem to be a logical assumption—there are too many New Zealanders busy playing at tennis, cricket, bowls, swimming and track athletics and therefore unable to watch others playing. If such is the case it is better for all concerned that it should be so.