Page "Len Hutton" Paragraph 42

Hutton missed large parts of the 1954 season on medical advice, suffering from mental and physical exhaustion brought about by the West Indian tour.

He played in the first Test against Pakistan, on their first tour of England, scored a duck and missed the next two matches.

In Hutton's absence, the selectors appointed the amateur David Sheppard, a theology student at the time ; Sheppard achieved little batting success, but England won the two Tests in which he was captain.

According to Wisden editor Norman Preston, influential figures within the cricket hierarchy blamed Hutton for the previous winter's events and they attempted to replace Hutton as captain.

Two former England cricketers, Errol Holmes and Walter Robins, the latter also a selector that year, favoured Sheppard over Hutton and persuaded him to offer his candidacy to captain the MCC in Australia that winter.

Sheppard indicated he would accept the post and take a leave of absence from his studies if required.

The press speculated that Hutton would step aside, but most newspapers favoured Hutton's continued leadership and ran stories alleging MCC prejudice against professional cricketers.

Neither Hutton nor Sheppard publicly expressed an opinion, although Hutton informed the MCC he would tour Australia as captain or player as required, and both men remained on good personal terms throughout.

Robins, seeing the strength of opinion, backed down.

When Hutton returned to cricket in July, scoring two centuries, he was appointed captain of the MCC for the winter tour.

Returning to captain a slightly weakened team for the fourth and final Test, Hutton failed with the bat, and Pakistan recorded their first Test victory.

In his three Test innings of the season, Hutton scored just 19 runs.

Owing to his reduced appearances, Hutton failed to reach 1, 000 first-class runs for the first time since 1936, reaching 912 runs at an average of 35. 07.