As a right-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper, he represented
Middlesex in three first-class matches in 1930, whilst on annual leave from the bank for which he worked. He played for the Private Banks XI from 1926 to 1936 and for the
RAF during the
Second World War, when he once made a century before lunch. Howard was an enlightened administrator and a popular tour manager. He was Secretary of
Lancashire (1949 to 1965) and
Surrey (1965 to 1975) and managed three
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) touring teams in Australia and the Indian sub-continent. The
English cricket team in Australia in 1954–55 of Australia was the focal point of his rich and varied life, with England winning a series in Australia for the first time since
Bodyline in 1932–33. The
English cricket team in Pakistan in 1955–56 was marred by an incident, when several of the England cricketers doused the umpire
Idris Baig with a bucket of water and as a result a major controversy broke out. The background included Baig telling Howard, "You must understand ... that a lot of the crowd come to watch me umpire", and that same day reportedly giving three dubious LBWs against England, and turning down a certain one of their own. It took a sincere apology by MCC president, Field Marshal
Alexander of Tunis to his former military colleague and counterpart at the Pakistani board,
Iskander Mirza, to prevent the tour being called off. which won the
Cricket Society Jubilee Prize in 2002. He died in
Minchinhampton, aged 93. ==References==