this may have arisen from his dislike of Lord's and the figures in authority there. MacLaren ended the 1906 season with 599 runs at 20.65. In the winter of 1906–07, MacLaren returned to India to work for Ranjitsinhji. In January 1907, he wrote to Lancashire to inform them of his reduced availability for 1907; even so, the committee retained him as captain. In February, Ranjitsinhji was named as the new ruler of Nawanagar. MacLaren attended his installation on 11 March—MacLaren and the politician Arthur Priestley were the only English attendees—and did not return to England until mid-June, although he informed Lancashire that his absence in India was to recover from an illness. He resumed the captaincy of Lancashire, and made a good start with scores of 47 and 92 in his second match, but his form faded. One match provoked a public row between MacLaren and Lord's. MacLaren captained Lancashire against Middlesex at Lord's in July; rain restricted play on the first day of the three-day game, and at the start of the second day, the umpires ruled that the waterlogged pitch remained unfit to play on. Some spectators came on to the pitch to look for themselves, then protested outside the pavilion. The incident was defused by the ground authorities, but the following day MacLaren told the press: "Owing to the pitch having been deliberately torn up by the public, I, as captain of the Lancashire eleven, cannot see my way to continue the game, the groundsman bearing me out that the wicket [pitch] could not be again put right." Lancashire would not play—although all decisions about fitness for play should have been made by the umpires, not MacLaren—and the match was drawn. The incident provoked discussion in the press, but most critics agreed that MacLaren was in the wrong. MacLaren subsequently scored his first century for two years, but he did little in the remainder of the season, at the end of which he again resigned the captaincy of Lancashire, conscious of his failing form and fitness. In all first-class cricket in 1907, he scored 829 runs at 26.74. Much of MacLaren's time was now taken up working for Ranjitsinhji, who visited England between October 1907 and December 1908. MacLaren played just nine matches in 1908; Lancashire were eager for him to play, but he had little impact. His greatest success came for the Gentlemen against the Players