fit. The Middlesex strokemaker had a chequered tour, averaging 7.57 in the Tests and 92.11 in his other First Class matches. First Test – Brisbane Preliminaries The First Test between Australia and England is played nowadays at Brisbane. Nobody seems to know why, and all sorts of arguments are ventilated for and against more cricket Tests on the Woolloongabba ground. I am all in favour of robbing Queensland of its greatest cricketing occasion, for the ground depresses. It is not a cricket ground at all. It is a concentration camp! Wire fences abound. Spectators are herded and sorted out into lots as though for all the world this was a slave market and not a game of cricket. The stands are of wood and filthy to sit on. The dining rooms are barns, without a touch of colour or a picture on the wall. Everywhere there is dust and dirt...The field is rough, although the wicket is usually a good one until it rains. Then it is a strip of turf with thousands of demons prancing up and down...at Brisbane only a Hutton could stay, let alone score runs. John Kay Selection of the Australian team would seem to be a simple process as eight of its members were highly talented cricketers who almost picked themselves; Lindsay Hassett, Arthur Morris, Neil Harvey, Don Tallon, Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall, Ian Johnson, and Bill Johnston. Don Tallon replaced Ron Saggers who had kept wicket on the tour of South Africa in 1949–50, which Tallon had missed. Ray Lindwall had been dropped for the last Test in South Africa, his form suffering from a series of ailments, but was recalled to the team to replace Geff Noblet. Batsmen Jack Moroney and Sam Loxton kept their places, but leg-spinner Colin McCool was replaced by the 35-year-old debutant mystery spinner Jack Iverson. The task for the England tour selectors was not quite so easy. The managers Brigadier Michael Green and John Nash, captain Freddie Brown, vice-captain Denis Compton and senior professional Len Hutton kept most of the team from the Fourth and final Test against the West Indies in 1950. This was not the best recommendation as they had lost the series 3–1 and the last Test by an innings even though Hutton carried his bat for 202 out of 344. Freddie Brown, Denis Compton, Len Hutton, Reg Simpson, John Dewes, Trevor Bailey, Arthur McIntyre,