Gubby Under Pressure

By this time Allen was not afraid to come out into the open and let his hosts know what he thought of their expectations from an MCC captain. In a speech to the Victorian Cricket Association during the luncheon interval of the third day of the final Test, he complained: ‘I do think that captains coming here should be protected. I have been rather hard-worked and I think it tells on a man’s cricket. If you look at the record of previous captains you will find that everyone has been a flop. They should be protected from the amazing kindness. But I am grateful for it, even if it has killed my cricket.’ As if to prove his point, Allen was caught at the wicket the next day for his only duck of the series. But by blaming his hosts’ hospitality, disparaged as ‘the nonsense I have had to put up with’, for his lack of personal success, Allen is offering a somewhat warped view of the circumstances. There is no doubt that, from the moment MCC arrived at Fremantle on 13 October until the conclusion of the state game against New South Wales on 17 November, Allen was under continuous pressure. Because of the injuries to Robins and Wyatt, the inability of Howard to cope fully with his managerial duties without Allen’s guidance, and the official engagements arranged in the cities of Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, let alone the one-day centenary celebrations at the town of Clare, Allen hardly had a moment to himself for 35 days. And that included 18 days of cricket in five state matches during which he was either on the field of play or watching and worrying over the progress of his batsmen struggling to adjust to Australian conditions and bowling techniques. The situation changed after 17 November. Allen played in only two more state matches out of the remaining seven arranged for the tour, bowling a total of twelve overs. He also missed three of the four remaining two day country matches, and only bowled five overs in the one he turned up for. On the other hand, up to the moment Allen made his bitter complaint on 1 March, the third day of the final Test, he had played in 23 days of highly competitive Test match cricket since December 4th. Even so, during those three months Allen’s total commitment equalled only 30 days of first-class cricket. Bearing in mind that Allen had put his foot very firmly down soon after he arrived in Australia when he was horrified to discover what his hosts were expecting from him, and had insisted ‘on being left absolutely free during the Tests’, a rough estimate of the demands upon his time during that period does not add up to anything like the nightmare scenario Allen suggested. Deduct seven days for a week’s holiday in Melbourne over Christmas and another seven days soon after in which to conduct private business affairs, leave out fifteen Sunday rest days, five days of travelling and the month long vacation in February, there were less than ten days left with time to be taken up by the ‘nonsense’ of official engagements that Allen disliked so vehemently. Allen also seems to have conveniently forgotten that he had arrived in Melbourne for the final Test supposedly refreshed after almost a whole month away on personal pleasure, apart from a couple of demanding days in Canberra and an annoying day in Sydney. Had he really needed such an extended leave of absence? His friend and supporter Wyatt, who saw him every day when he was actually with the team, certainly did not think so and later wrote: ‘He had worked very hard and was feeling the strain of the tour. He needed a rest but I think it was a mistake for him not to have played in a match between the last two Managing the show 31