Lives in Cricket No 32 - Eric Rowan

85 Attempting to keep all this out of the public eye, the Board asked vice-president and former South African team mate Ronnie Grieveson to personally hand Eric the letter, giving him the opportunity to announce his unavailability for the Australian tour rather than make the Board’s decision public. A strong character like Eric would never go quietly, and the next day his reply to the Board hit the headlines. He pointed out that he had not been given any opportunity to appear before the Board to respond to the charges. In answer to the reasons for his axing he said that while he had made the remarks he was in the dressing room and unaware that he was being interviewed. He denied that any warning had been issued to him in March 1949 over an incident between himself and a former Board member, whom he said had apologized to him. He cited provocation for his remarks at Manchester and that his captain Dudley Nourse had declared the matter closed. Apart from the incident at Old Trafford, he denied any other issues that could have been called a source of worry to the team. Eric said he was ‘shocked and bewildered’ by the Board’s letter and the fact that he was denied the chance to respond to the Board in person. He remained defiant. ‘Why should I retire when I love the game?’ It was not just a matter of words. Lennie Ettlinger is a South African attorney. His father, AE ‘Boy’ Ettlinger was Eric’s attorney. Lennie believes there were two court cases in which his father, acting on Eric’s behalf issued summons for defamation. One was against the president of the South African Cricket Union, the summons being issued in the Supreme Court in Bloemfontein. In the other instance Eric issued a summons against a member of the Transvaal Cricket Union. The belief is that the remarks were made by the defendants at different times and were likely to be about Eric being omitted from the South African team for reasons other than cricket. Both actions were settled and the details could not be located. Bill Ferguson, in his autobiography Mr Cricket , also stated, but without any detail, that Eric was involved in a lawsuit in which his opponent was forced to tender an apology. Ferguson held the view that Eric was in the wrong at Manchester, but that the crime was never worthy of the punishment meted out. Ferguson also understood the kind of person the South African vice-captain was. ‘Eric Rowan was a man who spoke his mind at all times, making no attempt to disguise his feelings, even when it Consequences