Donald Bryce CarrOBE (28 December 1926 – 12 June 2016)^[1] was an Englishcricketer who played forDerbyshire from 1946 to 1967, forOxford University from 1948 to 1951, and twice forEngland in 1951/52. Hecaptained Derbyshire between 1955 and 1962 and scored over 10,000 runs for the county.

His cricket administration roles included twelve years as assistant secretary to theMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC), taking over as secretary of the fledglingTest and County Cricket Board in 1976. In his ten years in that role, cricket writer, Colin Bateman noted that Carr "mixed diplomacy with a sense of justice as first thePacker Affair, and then the firstrebel tour to South Africa, threatened to split the world game".^[1]

Carr was the son ofJohn Carr, an officer of theRoyal Berkshire Regiment, who was serving with theBritish Army of the Rhine in Germany.^[2] He went to Forres Boarding School inSwanage (the headmaster, R. M. Chadwick, a former opening bat forDorset Minor Counties 1st XI, coached him) and then toRepton School, where his father had taken the post of bursar. Already an above average boy cricketer, he developed into one of the best young all-rounders under the coaching ofLionel Blaxland andGarnet Lee. In 1944 his last year at Repton, he captained The Rest against the Lord's Schools and the Public Schools' side against a Lord's XI.^[3]

Carr joined theArmy on 1 January 1945, and was sent to Northern Ireland, where he had little scope to play serious cricket. In the summer he went toWrotham for a training course and was chosen, on the withdrawal ofGeorge Pope, for England in the thirdVictory Test match against theAustralian Services XI atLord's.^[1] He went to theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst, and gained a Commission in theRoyal Berkshire Regiment in February 1946. In the1946 season he first played for Derbyshire in theCounty Championship. He made his debut againstKent, when he scored a duck in his only innings in a drawn match, but took two wickets. He also played forCombined Services.^[3]

Carr did not playfirst-class cricket in 1947, as he was serving inBurma, but left the army in April 1948 and went toWorcester College, Oxford. He played in the County Championship for Derbyshire in the 1948 season and, in 1949, made theOxford University team. He also finished off the season playing for Derbyshire in the1949 season when he scored 1,210 runs and hit three centuries, with his career top score 170 for Oxford University againstLeicestershire. In 1950, he captained Oxford, and took six for 39 againstLancashire. In his final year at Oxford his 34 and 50 helped defeatCambridge by 21 runs in theVarsity match, and he also headed the Derbyshire Championship averages in the1951 season.^[3]

After university, Carr went to work for a Midlands brewery, but before starting he was given permission to tour as vice-captain toNigel Howard in theMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team in India, Pakistan and Ceylon. He played in twoTest matches againstIndia in 1951–52.^[1] In the first, atDelhi, England were in a desperate situation until he andAllan Watkins stayed together for just over five hours and added 158 to save the game. He was captain in Howard's absence in the fifth Test, which was the first time England lost to India, leaving the series drawn at 1–1.^[1] In his Test career he played four innings in two matches at an average of 33.75, and a highest score of 76. He took two Test wickets for 140 runs.^[3]

He captained anMCC "A" side in Pakistan in 1955-56. He had been in the same Oxford side in 1949 as his opposing captain,Abdul Hafeez Kardar. He upset Kardar by joking that his nickname at Oxford, "the Mystic of the East", had been mistranslated as "the Mistake of the East". During the third unofficial Test atPeshawar, Carr and two other England players carried out a prank on the umpireIdris Baig, who had given several decisions that the England side regarded as poor, soaking him with water. Baig took this good-naturedly, but Hafeez decided to treat it as an insult to the pride of Pakistan. MCC offered to cancel the tour and subsequently held Carr responsible for the incident, something that he had already accepted.^[4]

Carr scored 2,092 runs at an average of more than 44 runs an innings in the1959 season, and was namedWisden Cricketer of the Year in 1960.^[5][6]

Carr played 745 innings on 446 first-class matches, with an average of 28.61 and a top score of 170. He took 328 first-class wickets at an average of 34.74, and a best performance of 7 for 53.^[7]

Carr representedOxford University at football, and played in theFA Amateur Cup final twice for the winningPegasus side in 1951 and 1953.^[3]

Carr later became anICC match referee. After his retirement, he became assistant secretary of the MCC from 1963 to 1976, and then secretary to the Cricket Council and the Test and County Cricket Board – both forerunners of theEngland and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – for ten years after that. He also managed several MCC tours in the 1960s and 1970s.^[1]

Carr's sonJohn played forMiddlesex.^[1]

• List of Test cricketers born in non-Test playing nations

• Donald Carr atESPNcricinfo
• Donald Carr, cricketer – obituary fromThe Daily Telegraph

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