Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

112 Take-overs and New Responsibilities that he would be the next president of MCC, nominated by the club’s outgoing president Alex Dibbs, 62 and thus, under the arrangements then in operation, ex-officio chairman of the International Cricket Conference. 63 John Woodcock in The Times thought that George may see it as his special mission to bring MCC and the TCCB closer together and under the headline ‘The Right Choice For A Difficult Age’ he wrote: As the game’s traditional overlords, MCC have certain inalienable rights, which are jealously guarded; the TCCB, for their part, have come to play an increasingly important role. The two, in a sense, represent different philosophies, which has not always made for an easy co-existence. While George Mann is president of one and Charles Palmer, a member of his side in South Africa in 1948/49, chairman of the other, there should be no trouble with any bridges that may need mending. In 1990 George was appointed an honorary life vice-president of the MCC, an office created in 1961 in recognition of Sir Pelham Warner’s lifetime of service to cricket and MCC. The criterion for this office was ‘long and distinguished service to the Club’ and previous appointments had 62 A.H.A.Dibbs, former chief executive, later deputy chairman National Westminster Bank, and a deputy chairman of British Airways, who had been a member of the Club’s finance committee for several years though not (until his presidency) a member of its main committee. 63 Among his more pleasant duties as MCC president was the formal opening of the extended library at Lord’s, built with assistance from Agatha Christie Ltd. Mike Gatting and George, as Middlesex president, after their county had won the Championship in 1990.