Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

111 Take-overs and New Responsibilities on what was labelled as the first ‘rebel tour’ during the winter of 1981/82. India were due to visit England in the summer of 1982 and it was made very clear that the tour would only go ahead if a firm line was taken by English authorities against the ‘rebels’. George Mann chaired a special meeting of the TCCB at Lord’s on 19 March, when it was announced that the twenty-one members of the full board had voted unanimously that the fifteen players participating in the unofficial tour of South Africa were to be banned from selection for the England Test team for three years. George said afterwards that the ban was regrettable but necessary to protect multi-racial cricket around the world and the structure of English county cricket. The decision had been approved by the counties after many meetings and countless hours of legal researching but the problem could arise again the next time England faced teams from Asia or the West Indies. ‘Who can tell what will happen then?’ George asked. ‘If the players have three-year contracts in South Africa, we can look at it again but we were advised it would be unreasonable to ban them indefinitely and we want to be fair.’ Asked what the Board would do if a ‘black’ country refused to play against Gooch after 1985, he replied: ‘We wouldn’t let ourselves be pushed around. We have been to the brink three times over D’Oliveira, Jackman and Cook and Boycott. If we have decided three years is the right period, people should respect that and require no further action.’ He did not think that any of the players would sue the TCCB for loss of earnings, estimated at £20,000 a year in Test fees, bonuses and sponsorships, saying that ‘We are relying on the reasoning, logic and fairness of our arguments to avoid that. We have had legal advice, different people from the Kerry Packer case, and we hope that our decision will not provoke any court proceedings.’ He also announced that the counties had volunteered not to include any of the Gooch team in their sides against India and Pakistan that summer. George believed that it was essential that the programme of future tours for at least the next few years be agreed now, so that sponsorship, advertising and other arrangements could be made on a secure basis. He also offered a word of sympathy for the South African cricket authorities. He did not blame them for wanting a high-class tour and was sensitive to the frustrations felt in South Africa: ‘They’ve done a hell of a lot to develop and encourage multi-racial cricket.’ It was his object to help them, ‘but not in such a way to drive a wedge among the other countries.’ He went on to say that the TCCB had tried to be as fair as possible both to those who had gone to South Africa and those who ‘resisted the blandishments.’ The 1982 India tour was saved and at the International Cricket Conference in July the meeting declared universal approval of the three-year ban on the rebels. Not everyone agreed with the decision: writing in the 1983 edition of Wisden , its editor John Woodcock, commented: ‘A one-year suspension, with a future tightening of players contracts, would have been ample.’ George left the TCCB in 1983 shortly after he had been appointed CBE in the New Year’s honours list in recognition of his services to cricket. He took over as president of Middlesex for the next seven years, and was president of the Cricket Council in 1983/84. In May 1984 it was announced