Lives in Cricket No 32 - Eric Rowan

72 Had the sit-down been the only offence he would probably have escaped any great censure. However, as he was walking off after his dismissal someone in the crowd called out, ‘Go back where you came from, you South African bastard.’ Eric’s reply was to the point and unprintable. Interviewed many years afterwards Eric admitted that the whole thing had taken twenty years off his life. He also gave his version of events. ‘The crowd was giving us a real go and I told Johnny to sit down. They were booing and hooting in such a fashion it became monotonous. The Lancashire bowlers started sending the ball down wide of the off stump. I couldn’t understand why some of them weren’t given wides. They were calling us South African illegitimates and all sorts of things. It prompted me to give them the V for victory. Johnny thought that if we did sit down the crowd would run onto the field, but we did and after a few minutes the booing stopped and we stood up and the game went on.’ Another view of what happened on the field comes from Lancashire and England off-spinner Roy Tattersall. In a letter to the author he wrote, ‘Eric was finding it difficult to score against a very good attack, and the crowd, never slow to show their feelings, gave him the slow handclap. Eric simply sat down and refused to continue until they stopped. After the interruption Eric came over to me and apologized, and we had a good laugh.’ Eric admitted he would have liked to have batted all day just to annoy the crowd and he was furious when he was dismissed. ‘As I was walking up the stand some chap sitting in the alleyway shouted and booed as I walked by. I had my batting spikes on and I just stood on his instep.’ In the rooms after his innings Eric was still angry. While getting treatment on the massage table he supposedly told reporters, ‘I was upset by the bad manners of the 15,000 strong crowd. I am not going to throw my wicket away for Lancashire or any other team in England. I could see no reason for their attitude. If they call themselves sportsmen, they have another think coming. I object to barracking when a bowler is making his run. I won’t even give them autographs after this.’ Louis Duffus described Eric’s interview as ‘forthright’. The ‘interview’ was far from normal in Eric’s mind. He said that while in the dressing room his brother Athol had asked him what had happened out there. He had let loose, but claimed he was unaware there was a reporter outside the door. He said, ‘Who the Triumph and Controversy