LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

130 Chapter Sixteen Final Years In 1965 rumours began to circulate that there had been ‘instructions from Lord’s’ to umpires to turn a blind eye to the bowling action of Charlie Griffith during the 1963 tour, and again in 1964 when he came to England as a member of a West Indian team led by Sir Frank Worrell to play three exhibition matches at Scarborough, Edgbaston and Lord’s in September. Eventually the MCC Committee issued a statement denying all knowledge that any ‘influential member’ of MCC had advised the first-class umpires not to call Griffith, backing the statement with a categorical denial from each umpire on the first-class list that anyone had been so approached. Despite that denial, rumours persisted and some years later, Robbie was dragged in to the story as one of the suspected conspirators who had ensured that Griffith would continue to bowl with his action unchallenged. In his autobiography, Ball of Fire , published in 1977, Freddie Trueman wrote that, when England were due to bat during the Second Test in 1963: I was having a quiet soak in one of the individual bathrooms at Lord’s. The place was otherwise deserted. Then I heard voices in the corridor outside. And I found myself listening to R.W.V.Robins, chairman of the England selectors at the time, apparently talking to the two umpires about the suspect action of Griffith and the complaints which had been coming in from various counties. I heard him say that the umpires should under no circumstances call Griffith for throwing. When they objected he explained that there was a lot of worry about racial tension in London and he feared a riot might be sparked off if Griffith was no- balled. When I came out of the bathroom Mr Robins was waiting for me. He had heard me moving about. He asked me if I had overheard the conversation so I had to admit that indeed I had. Then he solemnly asked me to give my word never to disclose it. I promised I would keep silent for a time but told him that I thought it should be made public eventually if only to point out the handicap England had been playing under. I must say I was amazed that the chairman of selectors could give such guidance to umpires. Analysis of the possible time-scale, purpose and location of those conversations, as presented by Trueman, suggest that ‘the who, where, when, what and why’ of his account were pure invention. He would have been taking his bath either at the end of the first day’s play or during the morning of the second day when West Indies had been dismissed for 301. Whichever moment it was, we are asked to believe that Robbie took the opportunity of a chance encounter, or deliberately sought out the umpires, to discuss an extremely secret matter in the corridor outside the England