By a Test Match Umpire
During the summer, and especially during a summer that has combined a visit of the Australian Test Team with day after day of blazing sunshine, cricket comes in for discussion by all sorts of people. First and foremost, there are the players themselves. Then there are the veterans of the game, watching from the pavilion end, and sighing for the days of W. G. Grace. And finally, there are those who stay at home and read the newspapers, thus qualifying themselves to question the competence of Selection Committees, Captains, and even Umpires.
Unfortunately, the Umpire cannot hit back, because it is part of his job to maintain a judicial impartiality which most critics seem to deny themselves. After all, if anyone is in a position to criticise a batsman or a bowler, he is ; and there are one or two other things about the art of umpiring that may be news even to the regular player.