The Spin | Hutton and Carson: cricket prodigies who took different paths after 1937 – by Simon Burnton England and New Zealand met at Lord’s this week 83 years ago with two gifted young batsmen in their ranks England’s Len Hutton (left) and New Zealand batsman Bill Carson. Photograph: Alamy Source: Guardian The first Test between England and New Zealand at Lord’s, which started on this week in 1937, was interesting for several reasons, none of them apparent to Neville Cardus at the time. “The engagement will be a Test match only in name,” he wrote in his preview for the Guardian. “None of us would expect Derbyshire to give England a good match; yet Derbyshire are a better team than New Zealand. The MCC should put a limit to the occasions on which a cricketer in this country is able to pick up ‘international’ colours almost for nothing.” England, he ...

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