Team manager bolsters uneven M.C.C. team

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33671, 22 October 1974, Page 34

Team manager bolsters uneven M.C.C. team

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) LONDON. Mr A. Bedser, the affable but cagey manager of the M.C.C. team, is expected to add strength to the team during its arduous tour of Australia and New Zealand. The team will leave today on the five-month tour. Most English cricket commentators believe that Bedser, aged 56, who captured 104 Australian test wickets with his medium pacers between 1946 and 1955, has the strength of character, experience and cricketing brains to bolster a side of uneven talent.

Already some commentators, such as E. W. Swanton of the “Daily Telegraph,” consider Bedser has made his lasting mark on the 16-man team.

It is “essentially Alec Bedser’s side,” Swanton wrote when the selectors made their announcement on August 28. Bedser is the chairman of selectors, a post he has held since 1969. His appointment as tour manager came almost automatically after it was decided to retain M. H. Denness — whom Bedser has defended on numerous occasions — as team captain. The Bedser-Denness combination will be crucial to the performance of England and consequently decisive in the defence of the coveted Ashes, observers judge.

I The 33-year-old Scots bom captain and his manager are •firm friends, similar in temperament and very close in their approach to and views on cricket. They have a disciplined and formal approach to cricket. Bedser puts team spirit very high on his list of priorities when assessing a cricket team. It was the first thing he mentioned in the favour of the M.C.C. team when he answered a question about its strength the day it was named. In the seven-week build-up to the departure Bedser has worked hard consolidating this quality among his players. Team uniform They will wear their team uniform on all official occasions, he has announced publicly. Behind the scenes further insistences on every player’s total endorsement of the M.C.C.’s task have been made. He is likely to be of invaluable support if disappointing team showings again bring criticism down upon Denness’s head, as they did in the West Indies early this year. Late yesterday afternoon the 16-man team gathered at the home of cricket, Lord’s, for a final briefing and a private dinner, Farewells Earlier, persistent autumn rain was falling as a small group of players and enthusiasts met at a Surrey pub which has a long association with cricket. At the renowned “Skinner’s Arms” — a boundary throw from the Oval —- Surrey players, G. G. Arnold and J. H. Edrich were signing cricket bats in a crowd of lunch-time drinkers toasting their heroes for the last time.

Meanwhile 25-year-old pace bowler C. M. Old — one of the “babies” of the team that has an average age of 31 —

was getting anxious as his train from Yorkshire continued to lose time. Safe in his small hotel room later, Old considered his first tour “Down Under” had already begun. And the tension was just beginning. Old was face to face with the first hotel room in a long line. He was a little daunted, saying, “Five months is an awfully long time.”

Colt.—Miss M. Smith (New Zealand) set a new Marino course record in Adelaide with a 72 to win the Beneficial L.P.G.A. open. She was 15 strokes ahead of Mrs G. Dwyer, a former New Zealand Tasman Cup player.