Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

103 Chapter Twelve The captain loses his crown Back in England, while the battle for the Ashes was raging, an effigy of England’s captain had been unveiled at Madame Tussauds. Such is the fickleness of sporting fame that it would not be long before it was scheduled for a meltdown. Mike has always been able to let his life flow on without worrying too much about how fate will treat him, but he knew that his tenancy of the England captaincy lay in the balance. His season started well, and in his third match, for MCC against the touring West Indians, he was at his consummate best with the bat. Taking the pace of Hall and Griffith in his stride, and ‘doing pretty much as he wanted against the spinners’, he made 140. Mohammed Ali, still known as Cassius Clay, visited the dressing-room at teatime to enquire which of the guys there had hit the hundred. ‘That’s me,’ was Mike’s laconic response. It was him again when the selectors chose their captain for the First Test at Old Trafford. Can I do you now, sir? Mike gets a dusting-down at Tussaud’s.