Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

49 A New Captain for England party should again contain fewer professionals and include at least six amateurs, believing that this would create not only closer contests in the Test series, but also less one-sided games in the nine first-class matches against the Provinces and eight two-day matches against District teams. After careful deliberation the MCC announced at the end of July that Frank Mann, now 34, would captain the party and that invitations had been sent to Arthur Gilligan, Vallance Jupp, Percy Fender and Greville Stevens, all amateurs, plus professionals Frank Woolley, who had toured South Africa with the MCC in 1909/10 and 1913/14, and George Macaulay. A further seven selections were under consideration. The appointment of Mann as captain received some criticism in the Press as it was thought that he might be out of his depth trying to manage Macaulay and Jupp, as they were both known to be quick-tempered and difficult to control on and off the field. But there was strong support, presumably from Pelham Warner himself, in the Morning Post of 29 July, who assured him that he was the right man for the job: There is no bigger hitter before the public today, nor is there any man more likely to play a ‘captain’s innings’ and win a match off his own bat. Apart from that, you have other claims to succeed as a county leader, for you have plenty of tact, you are a sound judge of the game, and your men have a complete and abiding faith in you. It is for these reasons that you have been chosen to captain the MCC side in South Africa and there is very little reason to doubt either your success as captain or that of your team in the field. … As captain, there is a general opinion that you are the right man in the right place. Like all captains of England before you, your heart is in the game, and you play it in its proper spirit. As an all-round sportsman you command universal respect. Frank’s solution to the ‘Macaulay and Jupp’ situation was to take them aside at the start of the tour and tell them that he had provisionally reserved their return passage on the first of each month and if there were any misdemeanours they would find themselves on the next boat back to England. The final selection of the tour party was announced in the 26 August issue of The Cricketer and bore witness to the sweeping changes that had been deemed necessary. Only six of the 30 players selected for duty in the 1921 series had been included: of the 16 making their debuts in Test cricket that year, only three had been considered good enough to go forward. A sixth amateur had been added as requested, Arthur Carr of Nottinghamshire, and in addition to Woolley and Macaulay, another six professionals were brought in, Andrew Sandham, Alec Kennedy, Jack Russell, Philip Mead, (who had toured South Africa with the MCC in 1913/14), George Brown, and Walter Livsey. Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Hearne and Parkin had all declined invitations to tour for business, health and other personal reasons, but the most surprising name to be missing from the list was that of Patsy Hendren and that was down to the selectors, a decision that did not please The Cricketer : ‘We wish a place had been found for Hendren − a great