Former England selector and Essex captain Doug Insole dies aged 91

Doug Insole
Insole batting for Essex against Surrey in 1951 Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Soon after Tom Westley batted for England at Old Trafford, the death of another righthanded and legsided Essex batsman was announced: that of Doug Insole, aged 91, who played nine Tests for England, and scored more than 25,000 first-class runs, and 54 centuries, including one against every other contemporary county.

Insole captained Cambridge University and Essex, laying the foundations for the county turning into one of the post-war power-houses of cricket, having long been a fun-loving and unsuccessful outfit.

But once he had retired, his influence extended much further, to the point where he succeeded Sir George Allen as the eminence grise or power-that-was in English cricket.

When Sir Donald Bradman flew to London to discuss the vexed problem of throwing after England’s tour of Australia in 1958-9 had brought the issue to a head, who better to pick him up from the airport?

Insole’s discretion was absolutely assured. Had he become the head of MI5 or MI6, never would there have been a leak.

He was an England selector for 19 years, although he was not the chairman when Geoffrey Boycott was dropped for slow-scoring against India in 1967.

Joe Root and Doug Insole
England captain Joe Root with Insole in February Credit: ECB

But his discretion - or power to keep controversies under the table - was never more tested than when he helped MCC to avoid universal condemnation for their role in keeping Basil d’Oliveira out of the 1968-9 tour of South Africa.

Another instance occurred when Don Topley alleged in a national newspaper that the Sunday League game and championship match between Lancashire and Essex at Old Trafford in 1991 had been fixed. Insole was the chairman of and eminence grise at Essex - and very little was subsequently heard.

A fine slip-fielder and occasional wicketkeeper, Insole yet again demonstrated what a safe pair of metaphorical hands he had when he was the manager of England’s 1979-80 tour of Australia.

Doug Insole
Insole with Queen Elizabeth ll at Lords in 2007 Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Fences had to be mended after Kerry Packer had launched World Series Cricket and the Australian Cricket Board rather sold out to him in the compromise. Nobody was so certain not to get involved in a row, not to wash dirty linen in public.

If he will take many secrets to the grave, Insole wrote one book - about his cricket and his football, where he was another fine player and even more influential administrator.

His death follows that of the Essex wicketkeeper Brian Taylor earlier this year, so the last two survivors of England’s 1956-7 tour of South Africa have gone.

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