Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

97 Chapter Seventeen On Tour Again According to his benefit brochure, Jack ‘is a great reader, preferring history and biography to fiction and the thriller. He is a model railway enthusiast and operates a comprehensive “00” gauge layout with the wholehearted assistance of his seven-year-old son.’ (Ian remembered the railway well. It was quite a sophisticated operation, with a number of locomotives, and a proper timetable.) These homely comforts had however to be put on hold as Jack’s season had earned him a place on MCC’s tour to India, Pakistan and Ceylon the following winter. It was MCC’s first trip to India since Independence four years before and its first to play Tests there for 18 years. After ten previous Tests against England India were still awaiting a victory, and tours by strong Commonwealth XI sides in the previous two winters had whetted the considerable subcontinent appetite for competitive cricket. MCC were managed by Lancashire’s Secretary Geoffrey Howard, and captained by Lancashire’s captain 26-year-old Nigel Howard, who was unrelated to Geoffrey but was the son of Geoffrey’s predecessor at Lancashire, Major Rupert Howard! Nigel was yet to make his Test debut, and with England’s leading players taking a break from touring, the party was far from representative, although Tom Graveney and Brian Statham would of course go on to have long and successful Test The Punjab Border Police at Lahore, with Jack, Allan Watkins and Cyril Poole no doubt glad their companions are not opening bowlers.