Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

148 Triumphs and tribulations as Chairman the captaincy.’ With his right to a place in the side openly questioned by Woolmer in the local sports press, Neil found his form and confidence affected. Feeling that he had had a raw deal, he took his problems to the Cricket Committee at the end of the season. Neil’s criticisms were accepted, and the cricket committee minutes were duly supported by the General Committee. Andy Lloyd, now cricket committee chairman, was instructed to speak to Woolmer on his return in the spring. ‘Woolmer’s lack of support for Neil, the club captain, did him no credit,’ Mike feels. ‘It illustrated his limitations in player management. He had done very well in his first spell with the county. The second wasn’t so good. For whatever reason, it seemed he was a three- or four-year man before moving on.’ Neil’s team had won promotion in the Sunday League and they were runners-up in the NatWest Trophy, but failed to win promotion from the second division of the Championship. For a club of ambition, this was not good enough, and Neil was replaced as captain by Michael Powell. Neil remained with Warwickshire until 2003. He had fulfilled a childhood dream, following in the footsteps of a father of whom he had always been immensely proud. He had represented his country, yet he looks back on a career that never quite clicked on as he had once hoped. As chairman of the club, Mike always tried to distance himself from matters affecting his son, but his views on the captain/coach relationship remain clear: ‘The captain has got to skipper the side – end of story. As soon as you get a dominant coach, I think that’s a recipe for disaster.’ Woolmer was to stay at Edgbaston two more years. His final season brought the last-ever Benson and Hedges Trophy, second place in the Championship and third spot in the Sunday League. That same summer he let it be known through the media that he would not be renewing his contract. Mike looks beyondWoolmer’s laptop analyses to question his wider value: ‘What I look for from a county coach is to tell me, of those three lads, which is the one who is going to make it.’ One talent spotter from Warwickshire’s distant past who would have failed Mike’s test turned down a certain W. Rhodes from Huddersfield. ‘That’s four thousand wickets down the pan,’ says Mike. He goes on to pose some questions. Who telephoned Ali Bacher to find the unknown Allan Donald? Who spotted the potential of Tim Munton – ‘not even his mother could have called him an athlete’ – at Ted Dexter’s ‘Find a fast bowler’ initiative? Who put his shirt on what