Douglas John Insole CBE (18 April 1926[1] – 5 August 2017) [2] was an English cricketer, who played for Cambridge University, Essex and in nine Test matches for England, five of them on the 1956–57 tour of South Africa, where he was vice-captain to Peter May.

[3] Insole was born in Clapton, London, attended the Monoux School, Walthamstow, and lived most of his adult life at Chingford.

Insole was chairman of selectors for England in the 1960s, and in 1968, he was criticized for presiding over the non-selection of Basil D'Oliveira for a tour to South Africa.

Only later did it become generally known that the selectors had been pressurised into omitting D'Oliveira because he was a 'coloured' South African and his inclusion in a team to visit the country, then under apartheid, was thought to be undiplomatic.

Boycott admitted to still feeling aggrieved about this over 40 years later, while commenting on the third Test between New Zealand and England at Napier on 24 March 2008 and again during the Test Match Special commentary of England against the West Indies at Edgbaston on 7 June 2012, where he said that Insole "should have spelt his name with an A!