Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

34 work and play,’ he says, ‘I didn’t have time to mess about. I was perfectly happy with that way of life.’ Though Mike had hoped to continue playing some first-class cricket after graduating, he had expected to earn his living in the commercial world ‘with thoughts in the back of my mind of cricket administration.’ However, after his successful second year at Oxford, he received an early offer of just such a post with Warwickshire that opened the way to a full-time playing career. At this time Warwickshire were one of the most ambitious of the counties. Underpinned by a thriving supporters’ football pool, the county’s campaign to bring Test cricket back to Edgbaston was on the verge of fulfilment, increasing the attraction of Edgbaston in Mike’s eyes. Leicestershire would have been happy to find him a post of some kind, but had meagre resources to compete with Warwickshire’s offer. So it was with the blessing of his native county that Mike joined Warwickshire as Assistant Secretary (Cricket) when he came down from Oxford. Warwickshire had hoped that Leicestershire’s willing consent would pave the way for Mike to be granted an immediate special registration, but MCC still stipulated that he could not play in championship matches in 1956. ‘They were pretty stuffy in those days,’ he says, recalling that Peter Richardson and Tom Graveney were also required to serve time on the sidelines before being able to play for their new counties. So, after the Varsity match, Mike’s first-class cricket was restricted to a rain-ruined Gentlemen and Players match at Lord’s, a three-day game for Warwickshire against Scotland, when he captained a young side in a drawn game, and the county’s match against the Australian tourists. The lack of cricket did not worry Mike too much as it enabled him to join a combined Oxford and Cambridge rugby tour to South America, but the chance to play for Warwickshire against the Australians meant that he flew out later to join the touring party. Fifty-five in the first innings, the highest score by a Warwickshire batsman, made the delay worthwhile despite a long sojourn in the field as the Australian batsmen piled up 424 for four on the way to victory by an innings and 127 runs. For Mike the rugby tour was to be the first of two sporting trips to South America for he was back in the Argentine just over two years later as a member of an MCC cricket team. Mike looks back fondly on the fabulous places he was able to visit on these tours. The rugby trip took him to Montevideo in Uruguay and to Santiago Romance in the Argentine