affected every possible aspect of the game." After the Second World War In the final stages of his playing career, Allen became increasingly influential off the field. After the war, he rejoined the MCC Committee. One of his first actions, prompted by a conversation with Hutton on the West Indies tour, was to secure honorary membership of the club for prominent retired professional cricketers. Allen was heavily involved in an MCC drive to improve youth cricket in the early 1950s. Unlike many of the cricketing Establishment, who saw improved public school and amateur cricket as a priority, Allen wanted the MCC to focus on state schools and boys who did not have access to top-class facilities. In 1951, the club formed the MCC Youth Cricket Association, of which Allen was a member. Another part of the process was the compilation of the MCC coaching book in 1951, which aimed to improve coaching standards throughout the country. Allen worked in collaboration with Harry Altham; Allen was responsible for the technical aspects of the publication. In later years, Allen judged this work to improve youth cricket as one of his proudest achievements as an administrator. In his survey of English cricket in the 1950s, Tim Quelch states that the coaching drive, and other similar initiatives at the time, achieved little owing to the limited resources available and because the boys coached had little opportunity to play cricket. Test selector In July 1954, Allen was involved in the selection of the MCC team to tour Australia in 1954–55, as the MCC's representative. That winter, he travelled to Australia to expand his business contacts and was present when England won three Test matches, which ensured victory in the series. Before the 1955 season, he was nominated as the Chairman of Selectors, and as his senior partner at David Bevan had no objection, he accepted. The workload of the post brought his playing days to an end. Allen served as chairman from 1955 to 1961; under him were three other selectors, who varied throughout his period as chairman, and the serving England captain. Among Allen's priorities were to promote attacking batsmanship, good fielding, and for the team to bowl overs more quickly. While looking for new batting talent, Allen often promoted young amateur batsmen; several emerged in this period, including Ted Dexter and Colin Cowdrey, who had successful careers and were part of a strong