Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

81 Triumphant in South Africa catch at short midwicket’ to get rid of Green, the momentum was lost, and wicketkeeper Geoff Clayton, coming in at the fall of the fifth wicket, took the futile decision to block out, a performance that contributed to his being sacked at the end of the season. Chosen as Man of the Match by Herbert Sutcliffe, Mike became the first player to take the award twice in the same season. But such was the grumbling from the Lancashire team and officials that their captain refused to attend the ceremony and the team’s celebrations had to be deferred until they were on their way home. Mike chuckles as he recalls the view of E.W. Swanton: ‘I trust the award was not for his captaincy.’ A similar opinion came from John Woodcock in The Times , a pertinent reminder that in those early days of limited-overs cricket it was considered bad form not to be attempting to take wickets. Mike, for his part, admits that his tactic was to slow down the scoring rate but he stresses ‘there was no question of us bowling wide down the leg side or anything like that. We had one or two in front of the wicket saving one and the rest on the boundary saving two. I was not embarrassed in any way by the methods we used.’ The Lord’s final came after a dispiriting end to the championship season, which had culminated in an innings defeat at The Oval. Bob Barber remembers waking that September morning and drawing back the curtains of the room he was sharing with Jim Stewart at the Clarendon Hotel to tell his room-mate that a heavy mist enveloped London. If only Warwickshire could win the toss, they mused. Down to breakfast they went to see Mike join his bowlers at a different table. ‘Mike sat with Jack and Tommy and, for whatever reason, they must not have wanted to bowl first,’ Bob now reflects, chuckling at a rare lapse of judgement by his captain. Winning the toss, Mike chose to bat. With coachloads of supporters still delayed by fog, Ian Thomson got to work. Four top-order scalps for 17 in his first eight overs put paid to any realistic chance for Warwickshire, who were dismissed for 127, after which Sussex coasted to an eight-wicket win. Several weeks before the season had drawn to a close, speculation had again surrounded the England captaincy to South Africa, but on 8 July Mike was appointed. ‘He came home as usual, read the paper and said nothing,’ Diana later revealed. ‘It was only after picking up the paper that I discovered that he was England’s captain.’ To John Woodcock in The Times the appointment was ‘more a formality than a surprise’. Dexter had ruled himself out from any thought that he might be a candidate – he had at least