He was controversially involved in an unsuccessful attempt, in 1954, to replace the current England captain, Len Hutton, with the young and inexperienced David Sheppard.

His father was Vivian Harry Robins (1880–1963), who played Minor Counties cricket for Staffordshire before the First World War as a leg-break bowler and right-handed batsman – characteristics which his son would also develop.

These figures included a score of 206 against Aldenham School;[3] his all-round performances made him, according to Wisden, "one of the great schoolboy players of the year".

[1] In the summer of 1925, before entering Cambridge University, Robins made his debut in first-class cricket, when he appeared for Middlesex in the County Championship.

[5] Robins was awarded a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge,[4] joining in October 1925;[6] in the following summer he gained his cricket "blue" as a freshman.

[1][8] In addition to his cricket prowess, Robins was a competent Association footballer, who played for Cambridge in each of his years at the university, being captain of the side in 1927.

After leaving Cambridge, he played his first full season for the county in 1929, scoring 1,134 runs and taking 162 wickets, thus performing the "cricketer's double" – the only time in his career that he achieved this feat although, as Wisden records, he came near to repeating it on several occasions.

Robins's positive batting, with the emphasis on attack, combined with his inventive bowling, made him a popular favourite with crowds.

[19] Robins relinquished the captaincy at the end of the 1938 season, but resumed it in 1946 and 1947, after the Second World War,[10] and in 1947 finally led Middlesex to the championship title.

During the Australians' second innings, as they chased 429 runs to win the match, Robins took the key wicket of Don Bradman, helping to ensure an England victory.

[10] After the Second World War, Robins served on three separate occasions as a member of the England Test selectors' panel: 1946–48, under the chairmanship first of Sir Stanley Jackson and then A.J.

[46] Hutton was dropped on the grounds that he had displayed deficiencies against the pace of the Australian bowlers Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller.

[47] Wright's omission from the Leeds Test, which deprived England of the services of their leading spinner probably, in the view of the cricket historian Simon Wilde, cost them victory in the match.

The ostensible reason given was to enable Hutton to concentrate on his batting, though some saw the move as reflecting the continuing antagonism of the old cricketing "establishment" to the advent of a professional captain.

[20] Wisden records that, in terms of England's results during this period, this ultimatum had limited effect, though "at least it relieved Test cricket of some of the stagnation which threatened its popularity at the time".

At this stage Sheppard, by now an ordained clergyman in charge of the Mayflower Centre in London's Docklands, had not played Test cricket for five years.

In terms of results the tour was successful – England won the five-match Test series 1–0 – but Robins was less felicitous in his managerial role.

According to Colin Cowdrey, May's vice-captain, almost before the ship carrying the party had left British waters Robins was seeking to impose his ideas of "military discipline" on the side, and telling May how the team should be run.

[20] Afterwards, to the team's dismay, Robins came to the dressing room and publicly castigated Cowdrey, in front of the players, for his lack of spirit.

This was too much for England's leading fast bowler, Fred Trueman who, according to another player's account, ordered Robins out of the room: "You ain't no bloody business in 'ere.

[52] Robins played all his cricket as an amateur and, not being independently wealthy, had to find employment when he left Cambridge in 1928 without taking a degree.

As a result, business commitments often restricted Robins's ability to pursue his cricket career, both at county and international level.

Later, Robins worked in Stafford, Knight & Co. Ltd.,[4] a successful family Lloyd's insurance brokerage in the City, which was probably established with Cahn's help.

[54][55] During the Second World War, Robins served in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, reaching the rank of squadron leader.

[3] Others were less sure; Wilde records that during Robins's first stint as a selector, 1946–48, the Australians were dismissive of his judgement, an opinion apparently shared by the former England captain Bob Wyatt, who "would have liked more intelligent people on the committee".

[46] Gibson is critical of Robins's efforts to replace Hutton as captain in 1954,[62] an action which Wilde describes as "disloyal and unhelpful".

It had, says Wilde, become much more tough and attritional, hence Robins's repeated calls for more attacking, brighter cricket were often inappropriate and doomed to failure.

[3] Robins's Middlesex colleague Ian Peebles, who succeeded him as county captain in 1939, described him as "the most enthusiastic and joyous cricketer I played with".