Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

In Jack’s view, the captain should have argued the case for retaining Greenhough, but this was an aspect of captaincy that Brian Statham found distasteful, and he hated confrontation. ‘He was such a nice, mild-mannered man. I can understand that he didn’t want the hassle of committee meetings and that side of it. He would find it difficult if he had twelve people to pick eleven out of that twelve. He would find it very, very hard to say to someone, “Look, sorry but … .” The job of leaving people out, that would upset him.’ The ambivalent skipper, perhaps the only man who could have taken the job on, Jack feels, had started with a vice-captain, David Green, who was widely seen as a logical successor. The cricket committee had been unanimous in putting forward the name of the former Oxford Blue in 1965, and that summer he passed 2,000 runs in first-class matches. However, he was never the type to bow uncritically to authority and aspects of his behaviour had been a topic for discussion in committee. By 1966 he was ‘not a suitable candidate for the captaincy’. Matters did not improve and the committee resolved that he would not continue as vice-captain. Initially they were minded to give the vice-captaincy to Pullar, but he was no longer the inspirational figure he had once been. Since his return from Australia in 1963 his batting had suffered along with his health. In 1965 doubts about his long-term future were expressed when it had been resolved that he should be told before the start of the next season that ‘he should really get down to it and get himself fully fit and make himself a really invaluable member of the side.’ Eventually no vice-captain was appointed for 1967, but it was agreed that Pullar should ‘take over at any time the captain had to leave the field of play during the course of a match.’ Meanwhile steps were taken to recruit players from outside the county. This was not the traditional Red Rose approach. Indeed, back in 1956 when ‘the captain had drawn attention to the ability of a young cricketer at present playing for the Cambridge University eleven,’ it was resolved that ‘the Club’s policy with regard to the playing of Lancashire-born cricketers should be followed and no approach should be made to E.R.Dexter.’ To fill the spin-bowling gap a player older than the departing Greenhough was recruited. Ramsbottom-born John Savage, an off-spinner, had played second-eleven cricket for Lancashire in the ‘We need someone to read nine verses’ 55