Gubby Under Pressure

One wonders what the reaction of Holmes would have been if he had decided to go after all, and then learned that there would be no vice-captain, and that it was down to Allen to appoint a deputy as and when appropriate. Would he not have seen through this subterfuge, concocted by the Middlesex mafia of Warner, Allen and Robins, to allow Allen to favour his close friend Robins as and when he wished? Allen’s decision not to appoint a vice-captain in an attempt to control the situation may well have backfired on him and presented more problems than it solved. A search of Swanton’s biography of Allen for some clarification of the vice-captain situation revealed nothing, except inaccurate reporting of the nomination of Robins as vice-captain when the team sailed from Southampton. On the other hand Bruce Harris of the London Evening Standard , in his book 1937 Australian Test Tour , is more reliable and reported the situation correctly: ‘The management are silent about the vice-captaincy, but I believe it is very probable that the post will be filled by Robins, though there is no officially named vice-captain.’ Of course, the elevation of Robins would eventually be made as soon as the opportunity presented itself, despite Wyatt having more captaincy experience than either Robins or Allen put together. The delay in appointing a touring party selection committee continued right up almost to the point of departure. Then, without discussing the matter with any other member of MCC’s Committee, the chairman Sir Stanley Jackson informed Allen that it would consist of Allen, as chairman, plus Robins, Wyatt and Howard, with powers to call in Hammond and another professional for consultation. Allen disliked the discrimination between amateurs and professionals and, as he was leaving, asked for the authority of the MCC Committee to include Hammond and Leyland as full members. I discovered in the minutes of 1936 MCC Selection sub-Committee meetings that, while the teamwas at sea, it had agreed to Allen’s demands and that he was authorised to appoint his own committee to assist in selecting sides for the Tests and other matches. But Allen appears to have been dissatisfied with the proviso that MCC had no objections to his advising the press of the names, as long as he made it clear that his committee would only be acting in an advisory capacity under his chairmanship and that he retained the final decision on the composition of the teams, because he made no such announcement. Swanton erroneously took this to mean Allen had taken the decision to do without an official selection committee, and would make his own arrangements. Swanton compounds his error by suggesting that Robins, Wyatt, Leyland and Hammond had unknowingly functioned unofficially as selectors once they all arrived in Australia, when quite clearly they had been chosen within MCC guidelines but without their names being released to journalists. In the absence of a press announcement it seems that Allen preferred not to let anyone know just how autocratic his powers were, while at the same time keeping them up his sleeve to bring into play in case he needed to veto any selections. At least Swanton got it right when he wrote: ‘It was his tour and he wanted it run his way.’ Preparing for the tour 14