It is an extraordinary fact – one that I was ignorant of until now – that 10% of all England cricketers only played once for their country. In total, 718 cricketers have represented England since the inaugural Test match between England and Australia in 1877, from Tom Armitage, the first on the roll of honour because his name begins with an ‘A’, all the way down to No. 718, Jacob Bethell, who made his Test debut on 28thNovember in the recent 2024 tour of New Zealand. Of those 718 England cricketers, 70 received just a solitary cap. How can this be? You would think that anybody good enough to be picked for his country ought to be given a second chance at the very least. Cricket is a very fickle mistress. A batsman can receive an unplayable ball in the first innings and be run out unluckily in the second. A bowler can suffer dropped catches, or bowl on a batsman’s paradise or run into an opponent batting out of his skin. Such misfortune befalls every player at some stage in his career; surely it should have been realisedthat the hapless debutant simply had the misfortune to suffer adversity in his first Test, not his tenth or his twentieth or his fiftieth. A run of two or three Tests ought to be in order for the selectors to decide whether or not he was made of the right stuff.
Seventy England cricketers, it would seem, were not afforded such leeway. So, who was to blame? Was it simply a case of the player not being good enough? If so, why was he picked in the first place? Were the selectors mistaken and swiftly, ruthlessly, sought to rectify their mistake by jettisoning the unfortunate debutant at the earliest opportunity? Or were other forces at work, outside influences, county preferences, class prejudice, disciplinary issues, injury, force majeure…even death (as happened to Fred Grace, younger brother of the illustrious WG, who caught a cold during his one and only Test, which swiftly escalated into pneumonia, resulting in his death two weeks later)?
Fred Grace, brother of the illustrious WG, died of pneumonia two weeks after his first – and only – Test match.
The fact is that the circumstances surrounding the dropping of so many players after one Test are many and varied and very often not clear at all. Selection meetings were notoriously opaque, certainly so in the years when amateurs ruled the roost – selection boards rarely counted a professional amongtheir ranks – minutes were never taken and if they had, wild horses wouldn’t have got them published. The whiff of favouritism and political interference wafted through the corridors of Lord’s throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, traces of which have only been blown away in recent years by increased public scrutiny. Today, Rob Key, the managing director of the England team, must stand up in front of the country’s sports media to justify his selections and to explainhis omissions. And to be fair to the current England set-up, much more faith – sometimes it could be argued that too much faith – is invested in new, young players. In the past ten years, only eight players have received one cap and a number of those are still playing and might realistically expect to be picked again.
The list of One Cap Wonders of the 20th century (prior to 1900, international series were sporadic and selection haphazard) is made up of largely forgotten names, though one or two are more easily recognisable because there is an interesting footnote to their story.
Fred Tate played his solitary match for England in the famous game at Old Trafford in 1902, which Australia won by 3 runs, thus securing the Ashes. This was the match when a spectator apparently bit off the handle of his umbrella during the unbearable tension of the final acts. It was Tate’s misfortune to drop a swirling skier at deep midwicket, which proved to be pivotal to the outcome of the match and for which he was forever – unfairly – held responsible. A contemporary photo of him reveals a man of a thick moustache, heavy jowls and corpulent figure, which begs the question why his captain had positioned him in the deep rather than at his usual station in the slips. His son, Maurice, went on to become one of England’s finest medium pacers, as well as no mug with the bat. He gained 39 caps and took 155 Test wickets.
Fred Tait, in his only Test match, dropped a vital catch in the deciding match of the 1902 series, which Australia won by 3 runs, thus securing the Ashes. He was never allowed to forget his pivotal role in England’s defeat.
Charlie Parker, who played for Gloucestershire, was certainly good enough to have played more than one Test; indeed, he took 3,278 First-Class wickets in his career, a total exceeded by only two other bowlers in English cricket, Wilfred Rhodes and Tich Freemen. Parker was considered to be difficult and temperamental by the Establishment, an antipathy that was mutual, which probably accounts for his solitary Test cap in 1921, after which he discarded having bowled not badly on an unhelpful Old Trafford wicket.
Charlie Parker of Gloucestershire
Another spin bowler who should by all accounts have played more than his one Test, against the West Indies at the Oval in 1933, was Charles Marriott, a Cambridge blue and lifelong English teacher at Dulwich College. When you look at his analyses in the match, you might well wonder why he did not add to that single cap. He took 5-37 in the first innings and 6-59 in the second, bamboozling the batsmen with his leg spin and googlies. His haul of eleven wickets remains the highest number taken by a bowler who only played in a single Test. Why? Quite possibly the fact reflects the England selectors’ historic suspicion of leg break bowlers – too erratic and expensive and thus not to be trusted. Furthermore, the spin bowling in the England side in this era was largely entrusted to the incomparable Hedley Verity.
Charles Marriott took eleven wickets in his only Test. He taught English at Dulwich College throughout his teaching career. Perhaps the selectors had a prejudice against English teachers.
Jim Parks (snr) was an opening batsman for Sussex and a medium pace, in-swinging bowler. In 1935, he did the ‘double’ (1,000 runs and 100 wickets), a considerable achievement in itself but nothing compared to his annus mirabilis of 1937, when he took 101 wickets and scored 3,003 runs, a feat unequalled before or since. It earned him a call-up to the England team to play New Zealand at Lord’s in the same year, but he did not distinguish himself and was dropped – harshly – for the next Test, never to play for England again. His son, also known as Jim, played in 46 Tests as a wicket-keeper batsman and his grandson, Bobby, was a team-mate of mine at Hampshire.
Jim Parks (snr)
Britain was an exhausted and debt-ridden country after her exertions in the Second World War and her cricket team was similarly denuded of youth and talent. It was hardly surprising that a number of players were selected on scant evidence and little experience, only to be found wanting on the larger stage. Nonetheless, there are some better-known names among their number. Sam Cook of Gloucestershire took 1,782 wickets in his career with his slow left-arm spinners but was unable to add to his solitary Test cap against the South Africans at Trent Bridge in 1947. His haplessness with the bat and his lack of mobility in the field were seen as serious weaknesses and he was soon overtaken in the selectors’ eyes by the emergence of Johnny Wardle and Tony Lock. Cook later became a long-serving, much liked and well-respected umpire. He gave me out on more than one occasion.
Sam Cook became a much-loved umpire.
George Pope, a fine Derbyshire all-rounder before the War,also made his single appearance for England in the same series in 1947, but his best years were behind him, and he retired the following year. He also went on to have a career as a First-Class umpire. Charles Palmer played his single Test match whilst player-manager of the MCC tourists to the West Indies in 1954, but he became better known in cricket circles as an indefatigable administrator, including the chairmanship of the Test and County Cricket Board and presidency of the MCC. Ken Palmer was known to me as an umpire, as was his brother Roy, but his sole England cap was when he was called up as an emergency replacement for the injured John Price, David Brown and Tom Cartwright to play in the Port Elizabeth Test match on the 1964-65 MCC tour of South Africa. Palmer happened to be coaching in the country at the time.
Hereafter, the One Cap Wonders are still with us and able to tell their own story…..
(I feel another book coming along….!)
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