Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

Chapter Eight In Pakistan, 1955/56 The selection of Maurice for the Pakistan tour received general support and encouragement. In many respects he was seen as the senior professional of the team, which included its fair share of ebullient characters like Tony Lock and Brian Close, as well as a noted prankster in Peter Richardson. It also had some very young cricketers, nine of whom were 25 or under at selection; Roy Swetman and Peter Sainsbury were both only 21. The Leicester Mercury , delighted at the selection, noted that he was the oldest player in the team, and commented that as he ‘always looks so youthful, between the wickets and in the field, it is hard to regard him as the veteran.’ A tour of fourteen first-class matches had been arranged, four of them against sides representing Pakistan. The team was, however, about to enter a potentially difficult and sensitive situation. In the 1950s, the full England team did not undertake tours every winter. In the first nine winters after the Second World War, they toured Australia three times, West Indies twice, and South Africa and the Indian subcontinent, once each. Following on from the torrid tour of the West Indies in early 1954, the long Ashes tour of 1954/5 and with the prospect of the long Southern African tour of 1956/57, it was thought that in 1955/56 the leading players ‘needed a winter off’. Pakistan, though, had performed above expectations on their 1954 tour, drawing the four-match series 1-1. They derived considerable satisfaction that this result was rather better than that achieved by India in 1952, who had suffered a 3-0 Test defeat. MCC had made a tour of India, Pakistan and Ceylon in 1951/52, four years after Partition, playing 23 first-class matches in all. Although the tour included five Tests against India, only four first-class matches were played in Pakistan, none of them, even the two against full Pakistan sides, were awarded Test status. Pakistan’s cricket authorities thus took the view that they were now entitled to better recognition. Maurice was very excited by the prospect of the tour. Dr Ellis of Peatling Parva vaccinated him, and by the end of the November he received the local press who photographed him packing and chatted to him about the tour. He was excited and in good spirits as he packed his things into the official MCC touring bags, and mindful of the need to pack the different clothes needed for the warm climate. He was also conscious of the need to take rubber-soled boots for use on matting wickets, and he was also taking three bats. He was busy, and joked that he might just about find time to have his hair cut. 109