Lives in Cricket No 32 - Eric Rowan

93 Chapter Eleven A Life Beyond Play At the time Eric Rowan played the game, cricket was not a profession for a South African sportsman. While payments were made for tours, (Eric received £500 plus expenses for the 1951 tour), and representative games, players were unable to make a living solely from cricket. In order to obtain a regular income Eric spent most of his working life in the printing industry, although that might not have been the case in the early days. A guide to the 1935 tour describes him as working for the South African Iron and Steel Works at Pretoria. He later represented a firm owned by the Gersman family called the Electric Printing Works in the sales and marketing departments and following that he spent many years doing similar work at Interpak. After his retirement he was offered his own off-shoot business called VPC, which stood for Visual Packaging Corporation, a company specialising in blister packaging. Eric remained involved in the business until a serious accident in 1983 ended his working life, but more of that later in the chapter. The end of his playing days did not mean the end of Eric’s involvement in the game. His knowledge was recognised when he was appointed a South African selector for the 1969/70 series against Australia. Along with Arthur Coy, the convenor, Jack Plimsoll and Roy McLean, Eric helped select the strongest teams in the country’s history, delivering a 4-0 whitewash and showing themselves to be the best in the world. The same selectors were also given the task of choosing the team to tour England in 1970, a tour cancelled due to the opposition to apartheid. They also picked the side to visit Australia in 1971/72, to be managed by former Springbok Neil Adcock, but again the tour was cancelled and South African cricket was isolated for over twenty years. It is interesting that his selection panel convenor Arthur Coy was a member of the Board that ended Eric’s international career in 1952. In addition to selection duties Eric had moved into administration with Transvaal. He became a board member and selector in 1955 and remained for decades, attending many meetings with his good friend Tuxie Teeger, who became Ali Bacher’s father-in-law.