LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

122 Chairman of England Selectors match at a time, and if he failed us I would drop him. Players must be given instructions before going out to bat. Selfishness is at the bottom of some of the trouble, and players must be told that this, we will not tolerate; we may not get very far with some, but if they get into their heads that what we want we are halfway. Players must be made to be enthusiastic and enjoy themselves. Spectators are quick to appreciate enthusiasm and for this reason alone it is worth insisting upon, whether it is naturally present or not. I hope you will forgive my frankness, it’s because I feel so desperately anxious for the success of our next tour to Australia. We have a job to do this summer against Pakistan for our stock is low and our chances of winning in Australia to say the least, dubious. All things being equal I think our main chance is to grasp the nettle. Insole voiced no disagreement with Robbie’s revolutionary proposals and at a press conference at Lord’s the new chairman issued a solemn pledge that the selectors would give priority to players of enterprise and courage. He went on to affirm that there would be no place whatsoever for defensive techniques in the teams they chose to represent England. He then expressed a personal view that emphasised just how serious he was taking this new policy: ‘I would not mind losing all five Tests in Australia if we played the right way!’ Not surprisingly, that was a step too far for many and Robbie clarified his approach: ‘I play to win and try to win from the word go. I play to draw only if I feel we may lose. I loathe losing; the hardest job I ever had as captain was to walk into the opponent’s dressing- room with a set grin on my face and congratulate the winner.’ Pakistan were the visitors that summer and unlikely to present much of a challenge, so the main interest lay in the selection of the side for Australia the following winter, with special emphasis on the choice of captain. Peter May had retired from Test cricket and Colin Cowdrey saw himself as his natural successor although he had temporarily put himself out of the picture by preferring not to take the MCC side on the tour of Pakistan and India the previous winter. Ted Dexter had stepped in but the results had been disappointing, with England losing two and drawing five of the last seven Tests which had featured negative play of the most depressing kind from all three teams. Some members of the press were concerned that neither Dexter nor Cowdrey was capable of leading a team with the right creativity that could bring back the Ashes and that the selectors should look elsewhere. E.M.Wellings of the London Evening News had the idea that David Sheppard might be interested and in a brief interview put it to him that it was desperately important for English cricket that he should go to Australia on the next tour as captain as he was precisely the type of leader urgently need to restore vitality to England’s Test team. Flattered by the suggestion, Sheppard said that he was intending to take a long leave soon, and that it was a possibility that he might be available for Australia, but that he had not been officially approached on the matter. There are several versions of what happened next. What is clear, however, is that Robbie, like Puck the mischievous servant of Oberon in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream, led everyone a merry dance as he orchestrated the return