Box C: Excerpt from "The Theory & Practice of Cricket" (1868)

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.