Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

Chapter Thirteen ‘I don’t mean me – I mean thee!’ The strength of Jack’s captaincy had been a united team committed to following his lead. ‘Most of them had nowhere else to turn,’ he had said. But could it ever be the same as a manager? A few other counties had appointed managers – Les Ames at Kent and, more recently, Ray Illingworth at Yorkshire – but for most it was still an alien idea, and a brief period with Cyril Washbrook as Lancashire’s manager in the mid-sixties had not brought success. The golden days of Jack Bond had not been sustained. Under David Lloyd there had been three more Lord’s finals, but only one victory. John Player performances had declined and a promising fourth place in the Championship in 1975 was followed by two wretched years when Lancashire ended just one place from the bottom of the table. In 1978 Frank Hayes had taken over, but the county still clung to a double-digit position in the Championship, with no one-day triumphs to offer compensation. Aware that things could not drift on, Chairman Cedric Rhoades saw the appointment of a manager as the way the game had to go. ‘No matter how strong a captain may be, and how devoted he is to the job, the days have gone when he can shoulder the whole of the burden.’ The terms of the job were made plain: ‘Jack Bond is coming back to take absolute control of the players and the coaching staff. His title of cricket manager means he will be responsible to the club’s general committee through me.’ There was a groundswell of support for Jack. Frank Hayes was quoted as seeing Jack as ‘the right man for the job’, though he added more ominously that he was ‘perhaps, the only man who could do it.’ Stressing that supporters should not be expecting miracles, Jack set to work. There followed seven years during which the highest championship place was twelfth, most seasons saw Lancashire below half-way in the John Player and winning the Benson and Hedges in 1984 was the only knockout success. 122