CRICKET AND CALCUTTA SWEEPS.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 198, 27 January 1875, Page 2

CRICKET AND CALCUTTA SWEEPS.

To the Editor of the Globe. Sir, —I see by advertisement in to-day's Press that a " Calcutta Sweep" on the forthcoming Interprovincial Cricket Match is to be held this evening under the auspices of a sporting publican of this town. As a cricketer myself, and, as I believe, expressing the opinion of a majority of cricketers on the subject, I wish to protest against this objectionable innovation (introduced, if I remember rightly, two years ago) of holding " Calcutta sweepstakes" in connection with cricket matches. It has always been a strong point in favor of cricket, and one which most true cricketers rejoice in that the betting fraternity have never found a congenial atmosphere in the cricket pavilion. At present so free from all connection with the betting ring is the game, that no suspicion of foul play ever enters the mind of the public, when the reverse of what has been expected happens in a match, —but, once let the practice of holding Calcutta sweepstakes, and of bookmaking on matches gain ground, and this confidence in individual fair play is undermined if not gone altogether. I have no Quixotic views on the subject of betting, and have troubled you with these few remarks, solely in what I consider the interests of cricket, and, if they in any way have the effect of checking the growth of the undesirable practices above referred to, the object will,have been attained of Your obedient servant, POINT No 2.