Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

76 Frank Mann: Test Selector out and return immediately to London. Under a headline ‘SENSATIONAL CHANGES RUMOUR’ and a question ‘The Captaincy: Will Hobbs replace Chapman?’, the newspaper went on: Rumours are current of sensational changes in our next Test team. If it is time for a change in the captaincy, it would be a perfect compliment to Jack Hobbs if he was invited to lead England in this the last Test match in which he is likely to play. Other captaincy candidates were suggested, including the England selector Jack White, who had captained England the previous summer in the first three Tests against South Africa; Arthur Carr, who had taken over from White for the last two Tests against South Africa; Percy Fender, current captain of Surrey; and R.E.S.Wyatt, current captain of Warwickshire. It seems likely that these rumours had been triggered off by Warner’s article, ‘Reflections on the Fourth Test’, in the latest edition of The Cricketer in which he had made serious criticisms of Chapman’s captaincy at Old Trafford: ‘Some 60 or 70 runs were given away by the faulty placing of the field for the bowling of Peebles.’ Warner went on to say that ‘Chapman is an inspiring leader, but he is not the tactician he was.’ Returning to the question of field placing, Warner warned, ‘in the final Test, which is to be played to a finish, we cannot afford to give away a single run.’ As far as the England batting was concerned, Warner observed that ‘it needs strengthening round about 6, 7, 8. Possibly R.E.S.Wyatt would be a help to the side. He is an experienced cricketer with a fine record who would give stability to the latter half of the batting.’ Three days later Frank was playing at The Oval in the first day of the Surrey v Middlesex match, the first of two friendly matches arranged for August as, unusually, they did not meet in the Championship that year. On Sunday, 10 August, there was a meeting of the selectors at Lord’s but this was not followed by an announcement to the Press of the team and captain they had chosen. That information was promised to be released on Monday morning but in fact it was going to be delayed another 24 hours as, later that Sunday, Leveson Gower sent a letter to Wyatt: The Selection Committee at a meeting held today have asked me to let you know that they would like you to captain England against Australia at The Oval next Saturday. We must have a meeting on Tuesday as soon as you can get to London to definitely select the side − because you, as captain, have the casting vote in the selection of the side if the other members cannot agree. So on Monday, 11 August, the press were frustrated again by the absence of any information about the selection of the Test team and its captain. Frank was unavailable to answer any questions as he was playing in the second day of the Middlesex and Surrey match, although it ended that Monday with Surrey winning by an innings and 171 runs, leaving him free to attend the selectors meeting the next day. On Tuesday, 12 August, the front page of the London evening paper The Star 37 carried the headline ‘TEST CAPTAINCY SURPRISE’ with sub- 37 The sister paper of the News Chronicle .