David Graham Clark (27 January 1919 – 8 October 2013) was an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er, cricket administrator and British Army officer. Clark was born in

Barming Barming is a civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. It lies to the west of Maidstone and at the 2011 census had a population of 2,690. The eastern end of the parish is part of the built-up area of Maidstone, although the remaind ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for five years, appearing for Kent County Cricket Club. He was Kent's captain for the last three years of his career before retiring at the end of the 1951 season. He was President of MCC in 1977–78. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he served with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, receiving a commission as an officer in the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) on 16 March 1940. He was then a parachute instructor at Ringway during the formation of the British Army's airborne forces, and was subsequently attached to the 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, with whom he fought in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. During the attack on Sicily his glider landed in the sea and he swam to shore with three other survivors. He was then posted to HQ 1st Airborne Division and ended up at the bridge in Arnhem during Operation Market Garden with 2 Para, where he was eventually taken prisoner. A modest man, he never mentioned his wartime service. He is likely to be best remembered for chairing the committee set up by the MCC in 1965 to "examine the future of county cricket in the widest possible terms and if thought fit to recommend alterations in the structure and playing conditions of the County Championship". The first-class counties rejected most of the recommendations made in the so-called "Clark Report", including those for reducing the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

to sixteen games and introducing a new one-day league, also of sixteen games. However, before many years had passed changes not dissimilar to these would be introduced. According to

Mike Turner Michael Ray Turner (born January 11, 1960) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. Turner's district, numbered as the 3rd district from 2003 to 2013, is based in Dayt ...

, a member of the Clark committee: "We started the ball rolling. The Clark Report was a great stimulus for fresh thinking." Clark was the tour manager of the 1970-71 English Ashes tour of Australia. The England fast bowler John Snow wrote that the tour "emphasised the gulf between players and administrators" and "I was sick of the biased attitude and incompetence which was apparent in cricket administration". Clark was described by the England captain

Ray Illingworth Raymond Illingworth CBE (8 June 1932 – 25 December 2021) was an English cricketer, cricket commentator and administrator. , he was one of only nine players to have taken 2,000 wickets and made 20,000 runs in first-class cricket.Arnold, Peter ...

as "an amiable, but somewhat ineffectual man" and there were soon divisions between him and the players. John Snow had bowled over 50 eight-ball overs in the First Test and was rested for the state match against Western Australia, but Clark insisted that he practice in the nets with the others. Snow bowled a couple of desultory overs and Clark berated him for five minutes after which Snow told him "that as far as my good conduct money was concerned he could swallow it" and went

walkabout Walkabout is a rite of passage in Australian Aboriginal society, during which males undergo a journey during adolescence, typically ages 10 to 16, and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months to make the spiritual and traditiona ...

until the next day.

smoothed things over, but after the Second Test Clark criticized both captains for cautious play, England for their short-pitched bowling and indicated that he would prefer to see Australia win 3-1 than see four more draws.

only discovered this when he was asked for a comment by a journalist in the morning and the rest of the team when they read the newspapers at the airport. As a result, Illingworth effectively took over the running of the tour with the support of the players and Clark's influence declined. Clark's only ally was the vice-captain

Colin Cowdrey Michael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, (24 December 19324 December 2000) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Oxford University (1952–1954), Kent County Cricket Club (1950–1976) and England (1954–1975). Univers ...

, also from Kent, who became isolated as a result. In the final Test at Sydney, Clark tried to push Illingworth back onto the field when he took the team off because of the crowd throwing beer cans after the Snow–Jenner incident. A furious Illingworth said he would not return until the playing area had been cleared and the crowd had calmed down and objected to Clark constantly siding with the Australians against his own team. When the team returned to England, Illingworth said that "all hell would break loose" if anyone was denied his good conduct bonus, but this did not happen. However,

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

and John Snow had to report to Lord's for a dressing down by the MCC Secretary

Billy Griffith Stewart Cathie Griffith, (16 June 1914 – 7 April 1993), known as Billy Griffith, was an English cricketer and cricket administrator. He played in three Test matches for England in 1948 and 1949. He played first-class cricket for Cambridge ...

for their behaviour.Snow, p. 136.

Notes

References

* Snow, John A. (1976): ''Cricket Rebel: An Autobiography''. Hamlyn. .

External links

1st British Airborne Division officers
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, David 1919 births 2013 deaths Kent cricketers Kent cricket captains English cricketers Military personnel from Kent World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Operation Market Garden English cricket administrators Presidents of the Marylebone Cricket Club British Army personnel of World War II British Parachute Regiment officers British World War II prisoners of war Royal Army Service Corps officers People from Barming 20th-century British businesspeople