tbf to him, its not like he was underperforming relative to his contemporaries - vs Aus/SA/Windies at home in matches he played in:
Barrington 51 innings 1880 @ 40.00 1 ton 13 fifties
Dexter 36 innings 1313 @ 36.47 2 tons 7 fifties
Cowdrey 36 innings 1275 @ 38.63 3 tons 6 fifties
The comparison with Cowdrey and Dexter is relevant. Removing the distinction between amateur and professional in 1962 now seems to have been long overdue. That's not how everyone saw it then. To some it was another drastic measure fitting the widely held view that the days of cricket as a spectator sport were numbered.
In 1963 the first one-day competition was launched. An experimental match was also held at Lord's that year reverting to the pre-1935 lbw law and adding a fourth stump. The front foot no-ball rule was introduced to stop “drag” combining with the thorny problem of throwing.
MCC were so worried about the 1966 football World Cup emptying grounds that they invited West Indies back after three years rather than the scheduled six, introducing split incoming tours to accommodate them. Barrington's 137 in seven and a quarter hours against New Zealand the year before couldn't have come at a worse time. Keith Miller said it had taken cricket back to the Dark Ages.
Cowdrey and Dexter had been amateurs with private incomes. They looked the part on and off the field, making batting seem easy against even the most hostile bowling. Barrington, a professional, relied on the game for his livelihood. He didn't possess anything like the same confidence and constantly worried about being dropped.
Cowdrey wasn't bothered about making big scores. More often than not he would get out soon after reaching a hundred. Barrington never gave it away and sometimes actually slowed down when well set, to the frustration of those watching. Comparisons with Boycott were misleading. The Yorkshireman was not a natural strokeplayer and had to work hard on his game. According to Dexter, Barrington had all the shots but chose not to play them.
Overall Barrington did not score much slower in Test cricket than Cowdrey or Dexter, or May, who were all pretty negative captains, contributing to drawn matches and the mentality Barrington was criticised for. But they never gave the perception of occupying the crease for the sake of it, which Barrington sometimes did. Chairman of selectors Doug Insole told Barrington to his face that his batting was selfish. He would never have dared say the same to the ex-amateurs, but in any case it probably wouldn't have been true.
Had he been paid better, Barrington might well have batted more positively and been rated higher. But he probably wouldn't have scored as many runs.
