Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

141 Triumphs and tribulations as Chairman who were called up. ‘There were too many passengers in the field,’ he says. ‘We were consistently giving away 20 or 30 runs a day compared to the Australians. I remember Phil DeFreitas having to field cover point and saying it took more out of him than bowling.’ An embargo on players talking to the press drew criticism of Mike, John Thicknesse commenting in Wisden on his ‘distant treatment of the media, to the disadvantage of both parties.’ Mike had grown wary of a more competitive press corps, having been nurtured in an era when he regarded correspondents such as John Woodcock and Michael Melford as friends. Now he was embroiled on the edge of controversy, where words might be twisted and with a captain expected to take heed of a distant chairman of selectors until Ray Illingworth went out to witness for himself capitulation at Melbourne and a more spirited fight at Sydney. Illingworth would later write of his discontent with the roles of Mike and team manager Keith Fletcher, taking issue with Mike for ‘going out of his way to identify himself’ with comments passed by the captain on members of the selection committee. Illingworth had won his position in a two-horse race, in which Mike had started out as favourite of the cricket establishment and the bookies. Much was made of this in the media, though Mike is adamant that the post was never one he actively sought: ‘One of the counties asked if I was prepared to be nominated and I agreed. The other man won. End of story.’ Had Mike won an apparently close contest, would it have made much difference to the direction of England’s cricket? Atherton thinks not. Any of us could pick the first seven or eight, he says, and ‘you’re only arguing over the last two or three places.’ The style would have been different, of course – ‘MJK would have been less abrasive, less combative than Illy, but would things have changed a great deal? I think not.’ Mike, of course, was not looking for the supremo role that Illingworth had insisted upon – ten years too late in Atherton’s view. For Atherton, it has been central contracts, made possible by Sky money, rather than personnel that have taken England to the top in world cricket. On his return from Australia, Mike wrote his tour report for the TCCB and followed it up with a paper pointing up the wider deficiencies he saw in English cricket andmaking recommendations for how playing standards might be lifted. He now reflects on some of the views he expressed, leading off with the fielding: ‘We had limitations in our outfielders, where we were exposed