Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

Bangalore to witness it. Nigel Howard, who had never taken to India and always feared for his health, had developed pleurisy and was in a nursing home. He was still on the sick list when the Test started and Donald Carr deputised. Carr won the toss and England batted, but they could manage only 266 as Vinoo Mankad, with eight for 55, became the first Indian to take eight wickets in a Test match innings. The death of King George VI caused the rest day to be brought forward, after which Roy and Umrigar both hit centuries, enabling India to declare on 457 for nine. England’s batsmen were then bowled out for 183, Robertson with a second fifty in what would be his last Test match and Allan, with 48, the only batsmen to resist. Donald Carr reflects on the loss of his only Test as captain, a defeat that brought India their first Test match victory: “The newspapers said that the local Indians didn’t expect us to play too well because of the death of the king, which was very nice of them. But I don’t know whether it made very much difference. We were a bit tired, I think, and they were a better side than us.” On they went for three more weeks in Ceylon, the modern Sri Lanka. The better appointed hotels were welcome to the tourists, but there was a rude awakening on the field when they found that their first opponents, a Commonwealth XI, included Keith Miller, Neil Harvey and five other established Test players. A century from Miller followed by early wickets in each innings on a juicy pitch consigned MCC to an innings defeat. Allan remembers Miller setting the tone by knocking Jack Robertson’s cap off in his first over. “When we’d spoken to Keith in the hotel the night before he’d said, ‘Don’t worry, I shan’t be trying too hard.’ He was trying as hard as he could! But we got our own back.” The revenge came in the next match as the tourists’ pride was restored with an even more emphatic victory over the full Ceylon side, but Allan, now exhausted, bowled eight wicketless overs and scored just 2. With only two more two-day games before they caught the boat for home, Allan and Jack Robertson were given a well earned rest, enabling them to visit a tea plantation in the mountains. The manager gave them time off on one condition: “He said, ‘You’re skippering the side at Galle, so Nigel Howard and Donald Carr can have a rest.’ I said, ‘Yes.’ Then he said, ‘By the way I’m playing!’” Geoffrey Howard played in both matches, acquitting himself well for a one-time club cricketer whose last serious match had been before the war. Senior Professional in India 69