The Globe. WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1875.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 292, 19 May 1875, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1875.

The proposed visit of a team of Australian cricketers to New Zealand will we hope be carried out. There would appear to be a very great probability that an eleven composed of picked players from Victoria and New South Wales will make a tour through this colony next season, and the venture should be successful in a pecuniary point of view. The cricketers of Canterbury have already met together, and their ideas on the subject of a match with the strangers from Australia were published in our yesterday’s issue. It would appear that our Otago friends think very differently from our representatives of their chances in a friendly match with the Australian cricketers. Some few days ago we published a telegram from a correspondent in Dunedin, in which it was stated that if the proposed team came, it was thought impossible to oppose them with any chance of success unless with twenty-two players. The Canterbury men, however, have taken up the position that they will not play an “ odds ” match ; and more than this, that “ Canterbury, in joining with one “ or more provinces, will contribute “ players only to matches of eleven a “ side.” This is bold on the part of our cricketers, and we hope they may have good grounds for their boldness. We hear that one,if not two, first-class cricketers are shortly to take up their residence 'in Canterbury, and if so, they will add materially to the strength of a team, which had only one or two weak men in it last year. The Canterbury men, too, will have the advantage of meeting the strangers on a ground with which they are thoroughly acquainted, and which differs in some respects from those the Australians are accustomed to. Taking these circumstances into consideration, it is just possible that our men may make a close thing of the match, if they do not actually win it. The first resolution passed by the committee must be alluded to it is as follows —“ That no match will be “ satisfactory unless played strictly « upon Intercolonial terms — i.e., that “ instead of a New Zealand eleven “ visiting Australia as it would in the “ ordinary course be expected to do, if “ a match of the kind were established, “ payment should be made of the ex- “ penses, including remuneration of “ professionals, of any visiting eleven “ from Australia, but that the pay- “ ment should not include any benefit “ to promoters or otherwise.” The passing of this resolution, if for no other reason, was judicious, considering the attacks made upon the Canterbury cricketers by an Auckland

contemporary. No one can pretend to any doubt aa to the terms on which our Cricketers are willing to play the proposed match, and consequently there can be no grounds for grumbling at our team not leaving home, except for the yearly match with Otago. We may expect to hear of all the necessary preliminaries for the campaign being settled in a short time, and the Australian team may be certain of a hearty welcome, and a pleasant series of matches, in New Zealand, whether they be victorious or not.