A fresh edition of the late Alan Gibson’s book about the men who led the England team in its first 100 years of Test cricket is reviewed by Eric Brown…
BY ERIC BROWN
England’s cricket captains must not only demonstrate decent ability at their chosen sport but also possess a wide range of other characteristics to succeed.
They will need to be tacticians, psychologists, warriors and thick-skinned enough to ward off frequent criticism aimed their way whenever the team fails.
A fresh edition of Alan Gibson’s book The Cricket Captains of England examines the qualities of national team leaders between 1877 and 1979 and how they applied their gifts on the pitch.
Two great cricket books published/re-published this week: Vic Marks’ “Cricket Captains of England 1979-2025” and my father, Alan Gibson’s, “Cricket Captains of England 1877-1979”. Buy either or both at https://t.co/seqjThbCiv or the usual outlets pic.twitter.com/QEq1ZcoKDD
— anthony gibson (@antgib) June 18, 2025
I have always been fascinated by the backstory of one particular England captain who played in what is known as the Edwardian “Golden Age” of cricket. He was, in fact, a colossus of sport. He scored six centuries in six successive innings, a feat equalled but not surpassed by Don Bradman. Apart from his cricket exploits, he once held the world long jump record and played in the Southampton side beaten by Sheffield United in the 1902 FA Cup Final.
If performing today, he’d be a millionaire worldwide star of television and social media. Yet time has dimmed memories of his achievements, and while not quite unknown, most people today would struggle to nominate C.B. Fry if invited to name the greatest all-round English sportsman.
Fry really was a true sporting superstar in an era long before the word became tiresomely overused. Yet the amazing story of Fry doesn’t end with bats, balls and pads, as Gibson points out. Surrey-born Charles Burgess Fry was once offered an opportunity to become king of Albania. The offer, made through an intermediary, tempted Fry, but according to Gibson, he could not raise the £10,000 required by Albanian officials for their crown and so declined.
Apparently, Norman Wisdom was not the first English star whose fame spread to Albania. Instead of sitting on a throne, Fry in later life stood several times for parliament unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate, became a Royal Navy captain and turned to journalism. He wrote regularly for the London Evening Standard and launched magazines including The Captain and C.B. Fry’s Magazine, as well as writing several books.
The statistical section of Gibson’s book shows that in 1912, Fry captained England on six occasions and remained unbeaten, winning four Tests and drawing two. It was an era when England changed their captains almost as often as toffs changed their top hats and leather gloves. Before Fry ascended to the cricketing throne, there had been six captains in seven years. In an 11-year spell just before and after the First World War, “Johnnie Douglas” was the only one of 11 England skippers to achieve more than nine Tests in the role.
Fry’s Test batting record of 1,223 runs in 26 matches at an average of 32.18 wasn’t particularly impressive and well below his first-class average of 50.22.
But there were other captains within Gibson’s timeframe with inferior records.
James Lillywhite, credited with being England’s first Test captain in 1876, averaged just 29 with the bat, although it must be acknowledged that pitches varied widely in standard at that time. For all his crowd-pulling ability, W.G. Grace only averaged a modest 32.29 in 22 Tests.
Several England non-bowling captains were ditched after being unable to post double-figure batting averages, including Ronald Stanyforth, whose four matches at the helm in 1927-28 yielded 13 runs at an average of 2.60.
Former Test Match special commentator and Times cricket writer Gibson’s detective work and cultured writing bring to life fascinating insights of the men who led England from Lillywhite to Mike Brearley and Geoff Boycott, including a Hollywood star, a future bishop, and of course, the man who might have been King of Albania.
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