Box C: Excerpt from "The Theory & Practice of Cricket" (1868)
Nevertheless a facetious critic presses his claim to be heard while presenting cricket under a novel aspect
13-Sep-2021
Cricket Its Theory and Practice of Cricket, from its origin to
the present time - Written by Charles Box in 1868, pp 22-23
Nevertheless a facetious critic presses his claim to be heard
while presenting cricket under a novel aspect.
A good cricketer, he maintains should have an eye as sharp as a
needle, a hand as tough as a thimble, and a leg as light as a
bodkin. Russia should be able to produce no leather equal to his
lungs and India should have no rubber half as elastic as his
muscles. He should have an eye as steady as a glass, with a frame
of iron - and his limbs should be a study to the limner.
Cricket can only be played by men of excellent temper, willing
like Hampden to fall on the field and who can submit cheerfully
to the battery of the bat, and of assault from the ball. The game
is essentially English, and though our countrymen carry it abroad
wherever they go, it is difficult to inoculate or knock it into
the foreigner. The Italians are too fat for cricket, the French
too thin, the Dutch too dumpy, the Belgians too bilious, the
Flemish too flatulent, the East Indians too peppery, the
Laplanders too bow-legged, the Swiss too sentimental, the Greeks
too lazy, the Egyptians too long in the neck, and the Germans too
short in the wind
Thanks to Robin Court on r.s.c.