Lives in Cricket No 32 - Eric Rowan

91 Eric was a man to have on your side in a crisis. As C.O. Medworth pointed out in his book on the 1951 tour, ‘If two people were lost on a raft and Eric Rowan was one of them, he would contrive by some means to get back to land with both individuals retaining sanity and preserving a sense of humour.’ Just to add to the perversity of Eric’s nature it was recorded that his favourite number was thirteen. Ray Lindwall noted Eric’s propensity for attracting controversy and thought he used it to motivate himself. In his view Eric was ‘a colourful character who derived special delight from tilting at windmills, exuded confidence and defiance …. he was always likely to upset all ordinary calculations.’ KenArcher also noted other aspects of Eric’s character. ‘As a person he was prickly. He seemed a loner and didn’t appear to be popular with his teammates. His previous history implied both selfishness and some propensity for disloyalty.’ Archer also commented on the great difference in personality between Eric and his brother Athol, who he noted was a gregarious and delightful person. The comment is a perceptive one. For Eric to give his all to any captain or administrator he had to respect him. If he did, as in the case of Herby Wade, his loyalty was total. If not he was quite capable of letting people know exactly what he thought. Former South African batsman Jack Nel was high in his praise of Eric’s batting. ‘He was a superb player off the back foot. He was always in position and played the ball very late. He was a good leg and off side player – but was an absolute master of the late cut and square cut. His concentration was legendary. He was a man of great courage as a batsman, and seemed to be afraid of no bowler who opposed him.’ Nel also noted that Eric always kept count of his score and one day, after making a century at Newlands, he went to the scorers to tell them they had made a mistake by scoring one of his runs as a leg bye. While Neil Adcock was a strong supporter of Eric’s captaincy, not everyone felt the same way. Nel’s comments about Eric’s leadership are interesting. ‘He had a very profound knowledge of the game and was an extremely good captain. However, his reputation as a captain was mixed if one talked to his Transvaal teammates. They found him to be a strict disciplinarian and one who seemed unable to tolerate poor performances from his colleagues. Winning was everything.’ In fact it was the only thing. He would often say to his daughter, and anyone else who cared to The Last Hurrah