Heroes and Contemporaries (Text Only). David Gower

of the incoming batsman, never short of an idea to try to confound him. Bowlers always need to know how to get a batsman out – it’s part of their memory file – but for other batsmen to know how to remove the opposition is always so much harder and not even Mike himself would claim to be a bowler.

      That was just one facet of his talents as a captain. Add probably the shrewdest tactical brain that has led England in my lifetime and a decisiveness in his handling of cricket and cricketers, and you begin to understand the origins of Mike’s successes as England and Middlesex captain. He analysed each batsman as he walked to the crease and set the field accordingly. Should his initial strategy appear to need revision there was little hesitation in ordering an immediate re-setting, with rarely any loss of efficiency. Naturally one cannot do too much against a batsman playing well and scoring runs, but as a player under JMB I always felt confident that the right thing was being done at the right time and that if Australia were 150–2 then it was probably their fault and not his.

      He was certainly not averse to gamesmanship. He would talk about a batsman, from slip, loudly enough for the victim to hear (sometimes effective against the novice but unlikely to disconcert most Test players) and discuss field placings with the bowler as though the batsman was no more a difficulty to be removed than a fly brushed off the nose. A number of people who suffered this kind of treatment were put off Mike and termed him arrogant, but they were hardly likely to be on his level. Come to think of it, not many of us would have been on that level, considering the intelligence quotient that emanates from the Brearley brain.