Colin McCool
Encyclopedia
Colin Leslie McCool was an Australia
n cricket
er who played in 14 Tests
from 1946 to 1950. McCool, born in Paddington, New South Wales
, was an all-rounder
who bowled leg spin
and googlies
with a round arm
action and as a lower order batsman was regarded as effective square of the wicket and against spin bowling
. He made his Test début against New Zealand in 1946, taking a wicket with his second delivery. He was part of Donald Bradman
's Invincibles team that toured England in 1948 but injury saw him miss selection in any of the Test matches.
A good tour of South Africa
in 1949–50 was followed by a lack of opportunity in the next two seasons, leading McCool to sign a contract to play professional cricket in the Lancashire League in 1953. Three years later, Somerset County Cricket Club
recruited McCool where he was a success, especially as a middle-order batsman; he played five seasons and saw the club achieve its highest place in the County Championship
since 1892. He retired from cricket in 1960 and returned to Australia to work as a market gardener
. He died in Concord, New South Wales
on 5 April 1986.
, McCool attended Crown Street State School—earlier students included Victor Trumper
and Monty Noble
. He played his childhood cricket on concrete wickets
in Moore Park
and learnt to bowl from reading Clarrie Grimmett
's instructional book, Getting Wickets. McCool played his early grade cricket
with Paddington
Cricket Club before coming to the notice of the New South Wales selectors. He made his first-class début for New South Wales
against "Rest of Australia" in March 1940, making 19 and 15 and taking one wicket. While the Australian Cricket Board
suspended the Sheffield Shield competition at the end of the 1939–40 season, at the request of the Australian government
, a series of matches were arranged to raise money for wartime charities in the following 1940–41 season. McCool played in six of these matches for New South Wales, scoring 416 runs at average of 52.00 and taking 24 wickets at an average
of 23.50.
McCool enlisted on 12 September 1941 and served as a Pilot Officer
with the No. 33 Squadron
of the Royal Australian Air Force
(RAAF). Stationed in New Guinea
, McCool had reached the rank of Flight Lieutenant
when he was discharged from the RAAF on 18 September 1945.
After the war, he moved to Brisbane
and was selected in the Queensland cricket team
. Playing for Queensland, he formed a formidable partnership with wicket-keeper
Don Tallon
. He was selected in the Australian team to tour New Zealand
in 1945–46, making his Test début at the Basin Reserve
in Wellington
. He made seven runs in Australia's only innings and took a wicket with his second ball in Test cricket; the last man dismissed in the Test, Don McRae.
The following season, Wally Hammond
's England cricket team
travelled to Australia for the 1946–47 Ashes series
. In a warm-up match before the series, McCool performed well for Queensland against the English tourists at the Brisbane Cricket Ground
(the 'Gabba), taking nine wickets and "the English batsmen seemed like rabbits fascinated in the presence of a snake". He was selected for the First Test at the same ground the following week. He just missed out on a century
on his Ashes debut, scoring 95 and only bowling one over as Australia won the Test by an innings and 332 runs. In the Second Test at Sydney, McCool took eight wickets, including the prize wicket of Hammond twice. Australia won by an innings and 33 runs. The Third Test at Melbourne saw McCool make his maiden Test century, 104 not out in a drawn match. The Melbourne businessman and underworld figure, John Wren
had promised McCool one pound
for every run he made that innings; this was at a time when ten pounds was the average weekly wage in Australia. The cheque—given to McCool the next day—allowed him to place a deposit on a house.
He played in the remaining two Tests, making 272 runs at an average of 54 and taking 18 wickets at just over 27 apiece. He took 5/44 in the Fifth Test. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
wrote that his batting featured "wristy cuts" and "vigorous hooks", opining that there were "few better players of spin bowling on a difficult pitch". Wisden said that his slow and loopy leg spin was "a clever mixture of leg-breaks and googlies".
India toured Australia for the first time in 1947–48. McCool played in three Tests without much success, scoring only 46 runs and taking only four wickets. Nevertheless he was selected as part of Australian team to tour England in 1948 that would be known as the Invincibles. He took 57 wickets on the tour but bowling for long periods caused him to continually tear a callus
on his third finger, used to impart spin on the ball. As a result his captain
, Don Bradman, felt compelled to leave him out of the Test matches, feeling that his finger would not be able to handle the necessarily long bowling spells. This decision was aided by the then existing rule allowing a new ball to be used every 55 overs
, allowing Bradman to use his fast bowlers
more often. For the rest of his career, McCool was troubled by the skin rubbing off his spinning finger. McCool and his fellow fringe members of the squad, Ron Hamence
and Doug Ring
, would refer themselves as the "ground-staff" as it was unlikely that the tour selectors would include them in the Test team that tour. The cricket writer Alan Gibson
, who knew McCool well in his later cricket career at Somerset, wrote that the omission "distressed him greatly at the time, though he could be philosophical enough about it later".
He played in all five Tests on tour against South Africa. He took 51 wickets in all matches, including 5/41 in the Second Test at Newlands
. In 1950–51, McCool was the leading wicket taker in the Sheffield Shield competition, however he was not selected in the Test team against the touring English; nor against the West Indies the following season.
, replacing fellow Australian leg spinner Bruce Dooland
. In his first season in the league, he was the leading wicket-taker with 93 wickets at the low average of 10.2 runs per wicket, and he also made 678 runs at an average of 33.9. The following year, he played less often: his 547 runs came at the better average of 42.1 but his 52 wickets cost 13.1 apiece, and East Lancashire, who had finished either first or second in the Championship ten times in the previous twelve seasons, finished 10th out of 14. He did not return to East Lancashire for the 1955 season due to being contracted to play county cricket for Somerset
. The cricket writer Alan Gibson
, who knew McCool well, wrote that "after he had made the decision to come, an extension of the qualifying period for overseas cricketers kept him waiting even longer".
Delayed by the change to the rules, McCool had a five-year stint from 1956 in English county cricket. Somerset, having finished on the bottom of the County Championship
table for the four years between 1952–1955, had embarked on a renewal programme. Part of the programme involved a vigorous recruiting campaign, including an offer to McCool that saw him return to first-class cricket
at the age of 39.
At Somerset, McCool was an instant success as a batsman, scoring 1,967 runs in his first season, including three centuries and a highest score of 141. After four seasons, Somerset came off the bottom of the County Championship (to 15th out of 17), and Wisden was in no doubt of McCool's influence: "Much of the credit for the all-round improvement went to one man – McCool," it wrote. "At the start of the season it was hoped that the former Australian Test leg-break bowler would lend power and variety to the attack. From that viewpoint his 45 wickets at over thirty runs apiece might be counted disappointing. But with the bat McCool exceeded all expectations. He was one of the most consistent scorers in the country and he failed by only 34 to reach 2,000 runs in his first season of county cricket. McCool was the backbone of a mediocre batting side, and he never departed from his natural attacking style." Against the touring Australians
that season he made 90 and 116, the first innings 90 coming out of 139 in two-and-a-half hours and including 15 fours, the second innings century out of 167 in just 95 minutes, with four sixes and 14 fours. Wisden reported that he was "very severe on[ Ian Johnson
] and [ Jack Wilson
] ".
Over the 1956/57 new year, McCool was one of a party of 12 cricketers, all but one of them Test players, who made a brief trip to India to play two first-class matches in celebration of the silver jubilee
of the Bengal Cricket Association in a side
raised by the Lancashire
secretary Geoffrey Howard. McCool did not play in the first match and in the second, he replaced Jock Livingston
, the team's only wicketkeeper, who had been taken ill during the first game. McCool made only 23 and 1 with the bat, but he stumped Vinoo Mankad off the bowling of Dooland, one of only two stumpings in his career as a very occasional wicketkeeper.
Back in England in 1957 he was joined at Taunton by another Australian, Bill Alley
, but still finished as the leading scorer for the county with 1,678 runs in all matches, to go with 44 wickets. In the wet summer of 1958 Somerset finished third in the Championship, their highest position since 1892. McCool's contribution was 1,590 runs and 46 wickets at, for him, the low average of 23 runs each. In this season, McCool made his highest score for Somerset – 169 out of a total of 314 against Worcestershire
at Stourbridge
– and in the last match of the season he produced his best bowling figures of his career, taking eight second-innings Nottinghamshire
wickets for 74 runs on what Wisden described as "a sporting pitch".
In contrast to 1958, the 1959 season was hot and dry and McCool's figures improved: he made 1769 runs at an average of more than 40 runs per innings and took 64 first-class wickets, more than in any other Somerset season. McCool's final season with Somerset before his retirement was 1960, and he signed off with 1,222 runs and 29 wickets.
In 138 matches across the five seasons for Somerset, McCool made 7,913 runs at an average of 33.82. He also took 219 wickets at 28.05 but in his five years with the county he was never the first-choice spin bowler: in his first two seasons, Somerset used Australian-born slow left-arm orthodox bowler John McMahon as the main spin bowler, with young off-spin bowler Brian Langford
also bowling more than McCool. When McMahon left, Langford took over as the top spin bowler, and by 1960 was bowling four times the number of overs that McCool took. But McCool had also lost some of his control at this stage: "He could do beguiling things with the ball, though length and line seemed to become a decreasing consideration," says the history of Somerset cricket. He also made 146 catches, many of them at first slip, where he stood "rather deeper than usual". His influence on Somerset's recovery from the trough of the early 1950s was considerable. A later Somerset history says: "Occasionally some of the younger pros didn't relish the way he treated them. Maybe they also resented that his salary was well in excess of their own. But their respect for his competitive approach and sheer experience was undeniable."
action, releasing the ball with his arm almost parallel to the ground. Before he developed problems with the skin on his spinning finger, he was, in spite of his unorthodox action, able to generate sharp spin. The cricket writer, Jack Pollard
said of McCool, "[McCool] was almost unplayable on badly prepared pitches, so wide and sharp was the turn of his leg-breaks." and that he "made even State [i.e. first-class] batsmen look inept". On the advice of coaches and ex-players, McCool attempted to alter his action to a more orthodox style on several occasions but always returned to his natural style.
A short man but with a strong build, as a batsman he was a vigorous hooker and a wristy cutter, scoring mostly square of the wicket. He was particularly good against spin bowling, even on difficult pitch
es.
During his time at Somerset, he was known for "[turning] a match with his cracking strokes in an hour." Alan Gibson wrote: "We hardly think of him as a stylist, and he was mostly a back-foot player, getting the greater number of his runs in the segments fanning out from point and square-leg. But he was enjoyable to watch, compact, tidy, combining powerful hitting with delicate placing. In the best Somerset tradition, he was always after the bowling, and in the best Australian tradition, he always relished a fight." But he also adapted his style to suit English pitches: in an early innings for Somerset, he was out trying to hook a ball from Trevor Bailey
. "The hook, he decided, was a stroke to be used sparingly on English pitches... McCool was constantly amending his technique that season [1956], whenever he spotted a flaw in his method. Again and again he held the Somerset batting together. Nothing in his previous experience had equipped him for the task of holding up a losing side in a damp English summer."
He was renowned for his catching, often spending an hour at a time practising catching a ball thrown into the side of a roller
normally used to prepare the cricket pitch. Journalist and former team-mate Bill O'Reilly
said after McCool's death in 1986: "If Colin had played in the last 10 years, he would have been regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders ever in Australian cricket. He was a great batsman, [...] a wonderful bowler and one of the best slips fieldsmen I have ever seen."
Alan Gibson wrote about him more volubly: "He thought about the game a lot. Many Australian cricketers do, more than English cricketers probably, but McCool was in some ways an untypical Australian. He had a diffidence and gentleness, which do not always spring to mind as familiar Australian qualities: but he had plenty of Australian determination."
Gibson wrote that McCool "did not quite come to terms with the West Country". He went on: "He missed the sunshine. 'There's no winter,' he said, 'and the beer's better. And the f------ off-spinners don't turn.' I think an additional reason was that he found some difficulty in accepting the conventions of English cricket as it was then. There was a Somerset committee member, who liked and admired him, and would greet him with, 'Morning, McCool'. That committee member was seeking to be courteous. He would have thought it pompous to say 'Mr McCool', and impertinent to say 'Colin'. But it infuriated Colin. He thought it a reflection on his status. He would have preferred something like 'Hi, Col, you old bastard.' The worlds were too far apart."
McCool was given a testimonial season
by Somerset in 1959 after just three years with county and the circumstances were unusual enough for it to be remarked on in the county's Year Book, published in the winter before the season. "Although Colin McCool has played for the County for three seasons only, this Testimonial is a fitting reward for his valuable services as an all-rounder and off the field, where his influence is most marked."
After retirement from first-class cricket at the end of the 1960 season in England, McCool returned to Australia, taking up market gardening
with a specialty in rare blooms at Umina Beach
on the Central Coast of New South Wales. He continued playing club cricket in the Newcastle competition for Belmont until rheumatism
forced him to retire from all forms of cricket aged 55: "Rheumatism in my right hand made it embarrassing for me to continue. It was alarming to an old pro like me who prided himself on length and directions to have the ball slip out of my fingers out of control."
McCool was the author of two books on cricket: Cricket is a Game, which was an autobiography, and The Best Way to Play Cricket, both published in 1961. John Arlott
, reviewing them in Wisden
1962, said the first was "full of trenchant good sense, humour, anecdote and shrewd observation". The second book, Arlott wrote, was "to the best of this reviewer's knowledge, the first cricket book to be initially published in the modern paper-back format". It was, he added, "full of good instruction and ... sets down some genuine cricket wisdom with freshness and vitality".
He married Dorothy Everlyn Yabsley in 1943 in Sydney. His son, Russ McCool
, who was born in Taunton, played one first-class match for Somerset in 1982, in addition to playing for New South Wales Colts and New South Wales Country.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who played in 14 Tests
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
from 1946 to 1950. McCool, born in Paddington, New South Wales
Paddington, New South Wales
Paddington is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Paddington is located 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Sydney and the Municipality of Woollahra...
, was an all-rounder
All-rounder
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a few batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists...
who bowled leg spin
Leg spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action, causing the ball to spin from right to left in the cricket pitch, at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left, that...
and googlies
Googly
In cricket, a googly is a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is occasionally referred to as a Bosie , an eponym in honour of its inventor Bernard Bosanquet.- Explanation :...
with a round arm
Roundarm bowling
In cricket, roundarm bowling is a style that was introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century and had largely superseded underarm bowling by the 1830s. Using a roundarm action, the bowler has his arm extended at about 90 degrees from his body at the point where he releases the ball...
action and as a lower order batsman was regarded as effective square of the wicket and against spin bowling
Spin bowling
Spin bowling is a technique used for bowling in the sport of cricket. Practitioners are known as spinners or spin bowlers.-Purpose:The main aim of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ball with rapid rotation so that when it bounces on the pitch it will deviate, thus making it difficult for the...
. He made his Test début against New Zealand in 1946, taking a wicket with his second delivery. He was part of Donald Bradman
Donald Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as "The Don", was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...
's Invincibles team that toured England in 1948 but injury saw him miss selection in any of the Test matches.
A good tour of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in 1949–50 was followed by a lack of opportunity in the next two seasons, leading McCool to sign a contract to play professional cricket in the Lancashire League in 1953. Three years later, Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
recruited McCool where he was a success, especially as a middle-order batsman; he played five seasons and saw the club achieve its highest place in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
since 1892. He retired from cricket in 1960 and returned to Australia to work as a market gardener
Market gardening
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre ...
. He died in Concord, New South Wales
Concord, New South Wales
Concord is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 15 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay....
on 5 April 1986.
Early career
As a child growing up in PaddingtonPaddington, New South Wales
Paddington is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Paddington is located 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Sydney and the Municipality of Woollahra...
, McCool attended Crown Street State School—earlier students included Victor Trumper
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found unplayable. Archie MacLaren said of him, "Compared to Victor I was a cab-horse to a Derby...
and Monty Noble
Monty Noble
Montague Alfred Noble was an Australian cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. A right-hand batsman, right-handed bowler who could deliver both medium pace and off-break bowling, capable fieldsman and tactically sound captain, Noble is considered as one of the great Australian...
. He played his childhood cricket on concrete wickets
Cricket pitch
In the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the...
in Moore Park
Moore Park, New South Wales
Moore Park is a large area of parkland in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of Centennial Parklands, a collective of three parks being Moore Park, Centennial Park and Queens Park. Centennial Parklands is administered by the Centennial Park &...
and learnt to bowl from reading Clarrie Grimmett
Clarrie Grimmett
Clarence Victor "Clarrie" Grimmett was a cricketer; although born in New Zealand, he played most of his cricket in Australia. He is thought by many to be one of the finest early spin bowlers, and usually credited as the developer of the flipper.Grimmett was born in Caversham a suburb of Dunedin,...
's instructional book, Getting Wickets. McCool played his early grade cricket
Sydney Grade Cricket
Sydney Grade Cricket is a cricket competition played in Sydney, Australia. The competition began in 1893 when a number of clubs, which had been playing for many years on an ad hoc basis, voted to create a formal competition structure....
with Paddington
Paddington, New South Wales
Paddington is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Paddington is located 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Sydney and the Municipality of Woollahra...
Cricket Club before coming to the notice of the New South Wales selectors. He made his first-class début for New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
against "Rest of Australia" in March 1940, making 19 and 15 and taking one wicket. While the Australian Cricket Board
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...
suspended the Sheffield Shield competition at the end of the 1939–40 season, at the request of the Australian government
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
, a series of matches were arranged to raise money for wartime charities in the following 1940–41 season. McCool played in six of these matches for New South Wales, scoring 416 runs at average of 52.00 and taking 24 wickets at an average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
of 23.50.
McCool enlisted on 12 September 1941 and served as a Pilot Officer
Pilot Officer
Pilot officer is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks immediately below flying officer...
with the No. 33 Squadron
No. 33 Squadron RAAF
No. 33 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force transport squadron. It was formed in 1942 for service during World War II. Following the completion of hostilities the squadron was disbanded in 1946. In 1981 the squadron was re-raised as a flight-sized organisation before being expanded to a full...
of the Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
(RAAF). Stationed in New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, McCool had reached the rank of Flight Lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...
when he was discharged from the RAAF on 18 September 1945.
After the war, he moved to Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
and was selected in the Queensland cricket team
Queensland Bulls
The Queensland cricket team, nicknamed the Bulls, are the Brisbane-based Queensland representative cricket team in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:*Sheffield Shield, 4-day matches with first-class status, since the 1926/27 season...
. Playing for Queensland, he formed a formidable partnership with wicket-keeper
Wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...
Don Tallon
Don Tallon
Donald "Don" Tallon was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953...
. He was selected in the Australian team to tour New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
in 1945–46, making his Test début at the Basin Reserve
Basin Reserve
The Basin Reserve , is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand, used for Test, first-class and one-day cricket. Some argue that its proximity to the city, its Historic Place status and its age make it the most famous cricket ground in New Zealand...
in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
. He made seven runs in Australia's only innings and took a wicket with his second ball in Test cricket; the last man dismissed in the Test, Don McRae.
Test player
Wally Hammond
Walter Reginald "Wally" Hammond was an English Test cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning his career as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed captain of England...
's England cricket team
English cricket team in Australia in 1946-47
The English cricket team in Australia in 1946–47 was captained by Wally Hammond, with Norman Yardley as his vice-captain and Bill Edrich as the senior professional. It played as England in the 1946-47 Ashes series against the Australians and as the MCC in their other matches on the tour...
travelled to Australia for the 1946–47 Ashes series
1946–47 Ashes series
The 1946–47 Ashes series consisted of five cricket Test matches, each of six days with five hours play each day and eight ball overs. Unlike pre-war Tests in Australia, matches were not timeless and played to a finish. It formed part of the MCC tour of Australia in 1946–47 and England played its...
. In a warm-up match before the series, McCool performed well for Queensland against the English tourists at the Brisbane Cricket Ground
Brisbane Cricket Ground
The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as The Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. It is named after the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located....
(the 'Gabba), taking nine wickets and "the English batsmen seemed like rabbits fascinated in the presence of a snake". He was selected for the First Test at the same ground the following week. He just missed out on a century
Century (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a batsman reaches his century when he scores 100 or more runs in a single innings. The term is also included in "century partnership" which occurs when two batsmen add 100 runs to the team total when they are batting together. A century is regarded as a landmark score for...
on his Ashes debut, scoring 95 and only bowling one over as Australia won the Test by an innings and 332 runs. In the Second Test at Sydney, McCool took eight wickets, including the prize wicket of Hammond twice. Australia won by an innings and 33 runs. The Third Test at Melbourne saw McCool make his maiden Test century, 104 not out in a drawn match. The Melbourne businessman and underworld figure, John Wren
John Wren
John Wren was an Australian businessman. He has become a legendary figure thanks mainly to a fictionalised account of his life in Frank Hardy's novel Power Without Glory, which was also made into a television series...
had promised McCool one pound
Australian pound
The pound was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 13 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. It was subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence.- Earlier Australian currencies :...
for every run he made that innings; this was at a time when ten pounds was the average weekly wage in Australia. The cheque—given to McCool the next day—allowed him to place a deposit on a house.
He played in the remaining two Tests, making 272 runs at an average of 54 and taking 18 wickets at just over 27 apiece. He took 5/44 in the Fifth Test. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
wrote that his batting featured "wristy cuts" and "vigorous hooks", opining that there were "few better players of spin bowling on a difficult pitch". Wisden said that his slow and loopy leg spin was "a clever mixture of leg-breaks and googlies".
India toured Australia for the first time in 1947–48. McCool played in three Tests without much success, scoring only 46 runs and taking only four wickets. Nevertheless he was selected as part of Australian team to tour England in 1948 that would be known as the Invincibles. He took 57 wickets on the tour but bowling for long periods caused him to continually tear a callus
Callus
A callus is an especially toughened area of skin which has become relatively thick and hard in response to repeated friction, pressure, or other irritation. Rubbing that is too frequent or forceful will cause blisters rather than allow calluses to form. Since repeated contact is required, calluses...
on his third finger, used to impart spin on the ball. As a result his captain
Captain (cricket)
The captain of a cricket team often referred to as the skipper is the appointed leader, having several additional roles and responsibilities over and above those of a regular player...
, Don Bradman, felt compelled to leave him out of the Test matches, feeling that his finger would not be able to handle the necessarily long bowling spells. This decision was aided by the then existing rule allowing a new ball to be used every 55 overs
Over (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it is completed by a teammate....
, allowing Bradman to use his fast bowlers
Fast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...
more often. For the rest of his career, McCool was troubled by the skin rubbing off his spinning finger. McCool and his fellow fringe members of the squad, Ron Hamence
Ron Hamence
Ronald Arthur Hamence was a cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. A short and compact right-handed batsman, Hamence excelled in getting forward to drive and had an array of attractive back foot strokes...
and Doug Ring
Doug Ring
Douglas Thomas Ring was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia in 13 Tests from 1948 to 1953...
, would refer themselves as the "ground-staff" as it was unlikely that the tour selectors would include them in the Test team that tour. The cricket writer Alan Gibson
Alan Gibson
Norman Alan Stanley Gibson was an English journalist, writer and radio broadcaster, best known for his work in connection with cricket, though he also sometimes covered football and rugby union...
, who knew McCool well in his later cricket career at Somerset, wrote that the omission "distressed him greatly at the time, though he could be philosophical enough about it later".
He played in all five Tests on tour against South Africa. He took 51 wickets in all matches, including 5/41 in the Second Test at Newlands
Newlands Cricket Ground
Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town is a South African cricket ground. It's the home of the Cape Cobras, who play in the SuperSport Series, MTN Domestic Championship and Standard Bank Pro20 competitions. It is also a venue for Test matches. Newlands is regarded as one of the most beautiful cricket...
. In 1950–51, McCool was the leading wicket taker in the Sheffield Shield competition, however he was not selected in the Test team against the touring English; nor against the West Indies the following season.
English cricket
Prior to the 1953 Australian team to tour England, McCool signed a professional contract with Lancashire League team East LancashireEast Lancashire Cricket Club
East Lancashire Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Lancashire League, which plays its home games at Alexandra Meadows in Blackburn. For the 2011 season its captain will be Mark Bolton and its professional will be Ockert Erasmus...
, replacing fellow Australian leg spinner Bruce Dooland
Bruce Dooland
Bruce Dooland was an Australian cricketer who played in 3 Tests from 1947 to 1948....
. In his first season in the league, he was the leading wicket-taker with 93 wickets at the low average of 10.2 runs per wicket, and he also made 678 runs at an average of 33.9. The following year, he played less often: his 547 runs came at the better average of 42.1 but his 52 wickets cost 13.1 apiece, and East Lancashire, who had finished either first or second in the Championship ten times in the previous twelve seasons, finished 10th out of 14. He did not return to East Lancashire for the 1955 season due to being contracted to play county cricket for Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
. The cricket writer Alan Gibson
Alan Gibson
Norman Alan Stanley Gibson was an English journalist, writer and radio broadcaster, best known for his work in connection with cricket, though he also sometimes covered football and rugby union...
, who knew McCool well, wrote that "after he had made the decision to come, an extension of the qualifying period for overseas cricketers kept him waiting even longer".
Delayed by the change to the rules, McCool had a five-year stint from 1956 in English county cricket. Somerset, having finished on the bottom of the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
table for the four years between 1952–1955, had embarked on a renewal programme. Part of the programme involved a vigorous recruiting campaign, including an offer to McCool that saw him return to first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
at the age of 39.
At Somerset, McCool was an instant success as a batsman, scoring 1,967 runs in his first season, including three centuries and a highest score of 141. After four seasons, Somerset came off the bottom of the County Championship (to 15th out of 17), and Wisden was in no doubt of McCool's influence: "Much of the credit for the all-round improvement went to one man – McCool," it wrote. "At the start of the season it was hoped that the former Australian Test leg-break bowler would lend power and variety to the attack. From that viewpoint his 45 wickets at over thirty runs apiece might be counted disappointing. But with the bat McCool exceeded all expectations. He was one of the most consistent scorers in the country and he failed by only 34 to reach 2,000 runs in his first season of county cricket. McCool was the backbone of a mediocre batting side, and he never departed from his natural attacking style." Against the touring Australians
Australian cricket team in England in 1956
The Australian cricket team toured England in the 1956 season to play a five-match Test series against England for The Ashes.England won the series 2-1 with 2 matches drawn and therefore retained The Ashes....
that season he made 90 and 116, the first innings 90 coming out of 139 in two-and-a-half hours and including 15 fours, the second innings century out of 167 in just 95 minutes, with four sixes and 14 fours. Wisden reported that he was "very severe on
Ian Johnson (cricketer)
Ian William Geddes Johnson CBE was an Australian cricketer who played 45 Test matches as a slow off-break bowler between 1946 and 1956. Johnson captured 109 Test wickets at an average of 29.19 runs per wicket and as a lower order batsman made 1,000 runs at an average of...
Jack Wilson (cricketer)
John William Wilson was an Australian cricketer who played in one Test in 1956....
Over the 1956/57 new year, McCool was one of a party of 12 cricketers, all but one of them Test players, who made a brief trip to India to play two first-class matches in celebration of the silver jubilee
Silver Jubilee
A Silver Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 25th anniversary. The anniversary celebrations can be of a wedding anniversary, ruling anniversary or anything that has completed a 25 year mark...
of the Bengal Cricket Association in a side
CG Howard's XI cricket team in India in 1956-57
An English cricket team managed and selected by Geoffrey Howard toured India in the 1956–57 season. They played two first class matches between 30 December 1956 and 8 January 1957, winning one and losing one....
raised by the Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
secretary Geoffrey Howard. McCool did not play in the first match and in the second, he replaced Jock Livingston
Jock Livingston
Leonard "Jock" Livingston, born at Hurlstone Park, Sydney on 3 May 1920 and died there on 16 January 1998, was an Australian cricketer who played most of his first-class cricket in England.-Cricket career:...
, the team's only wicketkeeper, who had been taken ill during the first game. McCool made only 23 and 1 with the bat, but he stumped Vinoo Mankad off the bowling of Dooland, one of only two stumpings in his career as a very occasional wicketkeeper.
Back in England in 1957 he was joined at Taunton by another Australian, Bill Alley
Bill Alley
William Edward Alley was a cricketer who played 400 first-class matches for New South Wales, Somerset and a Commonwealth XI....
, but still finished as the leading scorer for the county with 1,678 runs in all matches, to go with 44 wickets. In the wet summer of 1958 Somerset finished third in the Championship, their highest position since 1892. McCool's contribution was 1,590 runs and 46 wickets at, for him, the low average of 23 runs each. In this season, McCool made his highest score for Somerset – 169 out of a total of 314 against Worcestershire
Worcestershire County Cricket Club
Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Worcestershire...
at Stourbridge
War Memorial Athletic Ground
The War Memorial Athletic Ground, often referred to as simply the War Memorial Ground, is a sports ground in the Amblecote region of Stourbridge, West Midlands, England...
– and in the last match of the season he produced his best bowling figures of his career, taking eight second-innings Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...
wickets for 74 runs on what Wisden described as "a sporting pitch".
In contrast to 1958, the 1959 season was hot and dry and McCool's figures improved: he made 1769 runs at an average of more than 40 runs per innings and took 64 first-class wickets, more than in any other Somerset season. McCool's final season with Somerset before his retirement was 1960, and he signed off with 1,222 runs and 29 wickets.
In 138 matches across the five seasons for Somerset, McCool made 7,913 runs at an average of 33.82. He also took 219 wickets at 28.05 but in his five years with the county he was never the first-choice spin bowler: in his first two seasons, Somerset used Australian-born slow left-arm orthodox bowler John McMahon as the main spin bowler, with young off-spin bowler Brian Langford
Brian Langford
Brian Anthony Langford , is a former English first-class cricketer who played as an off-spin bowler for Somerset...
also bowling more than McCool. When McMahon left, Langford took over as the top spin bowler, and by 1960 was bowling four times the number of overs that McCool took. But McCool had also lost some of his control at this stage: "He could do beguiling things with the ball, though length and line seemed to become a decreasing consideration," says the history of Somerset cricket. He also made 146 catches, many of them at first slip, where he stood "rather deeper than usual". His influence on Somerset's recovery from the trough of the early 1950s was considerable. A later Somerset history says: "Occasionally some of the younger pros didn't relish the way he treated them. Maybe they also resented that his salary was well in excess of their own. But their respect for his competitive approach and sheer experience was undeniable."
Playing style
McCool had a round-arm bowlingRoundarm bowling
In cricket, roundarm bowling is a style that was introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century and had largely superseded underarm bowling by the 1830s. Using a roundarm action, the bowler has his arm extended at about 90 degrees from his body at the point where he releases the ball...
action, releasing the ball with his arm almost parallel to the ground. Before he developed problems with the skin on his spinning finger, he was, in spite of his unorthodox action, able to generate sharp spin. The cricket writer, Jack Pollard
Jack Pollard
Jack Ernest Pollard OAM was an Australian sports journalist, writer and cricket historian.-Early life:Born in Sydney, New South Wales on 31 July 1926, Pollard began his journalism career in 1943 as a copy boy at Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper...
said of McCool, "[McCool] was almost unplayable on badly prepared pitches, so wide and sharp was the turn of his leg-breaks." and that he "made even State [i.e. first-class] batsmen look inept". On the advice of coaches and ex-players, McCool attempted to alter his action to a more orthodox style on several occasions but always returned to his natural style.
A short man but with a strong build, as a batsman he was a vigorous hooker and a wristy cutter, scoring mostly square of the wicket. He was particularly good against spin bowling, even on difficult pitch
Cricket pitch
In the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the...
es.
During his time at Somerset, he was known for "[turning] a match with his cracking strokes in an hour." Alan Gibson wrote: "We hardly think of him as a stylist, and he was mostly a back-foot player, getting the greater number of his runs in the segments fanning out from point and square-leg. But he was enjoyable to watch, compact, tidy, combining powerful hitting with delicate placing. In the best Somerset tradition, he was always after the bowling, and in the best Australian tradition, he always relished a fight." But he also adapted his style to suit English pitches: in an early innings for Somerset, he was out trying to hook a ball from Trevor Bailey
Trevor Bailey
Trevor Edward Bailey CBE was an England Test cricketer, cricket writer and broadcaster.An all-rounder, Bailey was known for his skilful but unspectacular batting...
. "The hook, he decided, was a stroke to be used sparingly on English pitches... McCool was constantly amending his technique that season [1956], whenever he spotted a flaw in his method. Again and again he held the Somerset batting together. Nothing in his previous experience had equipped him for the task of holding up a losing side in a damp English summer."
He was renowned for his catching, often spending an hour at a time practising catching a ball thrown into the side of a roller
Roller (agricultural tool)
The roller is an agricultural tool used for flattening land or breaking up large clumps of soil, especially after ploughing. Typically, rollers are pulled by tractors or, prior to mechanisation, a team of animals such as horses or oxen....
normally used to prepare the cricket pitch. Journalist and former team-mate Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (cricketer)
William Joseph "Bill" O'Reilly , often known as Tiger O'Reilly, was an Australian cricketer, rated as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. Following his retirement from playing, he became a well-respected cricket writer and broadcaster.O'Reilly was one of the best spin bowlers to...
said after McCool's death in 1986: "If Colin had played in the last 10 years, he would have been regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders ever in Australian cricket. He was a great batsman, [...] a wonderful bowler and one of the best slips fieldsmen I have ever seen."
Personality and personal life
Accounts of McCool in his Somerset period portray him as a thoughtful but slightly aloof character. "Off the field he was a quiet man," wrote David Foot. He was "a contemplative pipe-smoker in the corner of the dressing room," says another account, and somewhat intolerant of others who appeared less committed than he was. "Occasionally some of the younger pros didn't relish the way he treated them. Maybe they also resented that his salary was well in excess of their own."Alan Gibson wrote about him more volubly: "He thought about the game a lot. Many Australian cricketers do, more than English cricketers probably, but McCool was in some ways an untypical Australian. He had a diffidence and gentleness, which do not always spring to mind as familiar Australian qualities: but he had plenty of Australian determination."
Gibson wrote that McCool "did not quite come to terms with the West Country". He went on: "He missed the sunshine. 'There's no winter,' he said, 'and the beer's better. And the f------ off-spinners don't turn.' I think an additional reason was that he found some difficulty in accepting the conventions of English cricket as it was then. There was a Somerset committee member, who liked and admired him, and would greet him with, 'Morning, McCool'. That committee member was seeking to be courteous. He would have thought it pompous to say 'Mr McCool', and impertinent to say 'Colin'. But it infuriated Colin. He thought it a reflection on his status. He would have preferred something like 'Hi, Col, you old bastard.' The worlds were too far apart."
Benefit season
A benefit season is a method of financially rewarding professional cricketers that is used by English county cricket teams to compensate long serving players....
by Somerset in 1959 after just three years with county and the circumstances were unusual enough for it to be remarked on in the county's Year Book, published in the winter before the season. "Although Colin McCool has played for the County for three seasons only, this Testimonial is a fitting reward for his valuable services as an all-rounder and off the field, where his influence is most marked."
After retirement from first-class cricket at the end of the 1960 season in England, McCool returned to Australia, taking up market gardening
Market gardening
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre ...
with a specialty in rare blooms at Umina Beach
Umina Beach, New South Wales
Umina Beach is a suburb within the City of Gosford local government area on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia.By road, it is north of Sydney and south of Newcastle....
on the Central Coast of New South Wales. He continued playing club cricket in the Newcastle competition for Belmont until rheumatism
Rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...
forced him to retire from all forms of cricket aged 55: "Rheumatism in my right hand made it embarrassing for me to continue. It was alarming to an old pro like me who prided himself on length and directions to have the ball slip out of my fingers out of control."
McCool was the author of two books on cricket: Cricket is a Game, which was an autobiography, and The Best Way to Play Cricket, both published in 1961. John Arlott
John Arlott
Leslie Thomas John Arlott OBE was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's Test Match Special. He was also a poet, wine connoisseur and former police officer in Hampshire...
, reviewing them in Wisden
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
1962, said the first was "full of trenchant good sense, humour, anecdote and shrewd observation". The second book, Arlott wrote, was "to the best of this reviewer's knowledge, the first cricket book to be initially published in the modern paper-back format". It was, he added, "full of good instruction and ... sets down some genuine cricket wisdom with freshness and vitality".
He married Dorothy Everlyn Yabsley in 1943 in Sydney. His son, Russ McCool
Russ McCool
Russel John McCool, born at Taunton, Somerset, England on 4 December 1959, was an Australian cricketer who, by dint of his birthplace, played one first-class match for Somerset in 1982....
, who was born in Taunton, played one first-class match for Somerset in 1982, in addition to playing for New South Wales Colts and New South Wales Country.
Test match performance
| Batting | Bowling | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opposition | Matches | Runs | Average | High Score | 100 / 50 | Runs | Wickets | Average | Best (Inns) |
| England | 5 | 272 | 54.40 | 104* | 1/1 | 491 | 18 | 27.17 | 5/44 |
| India | 3 | 46 | 15.33 | 27 | 0/0 | 199 | 4 | 49.75 | 3/71 |
| New Zealand | 1 | 7 | 7.00 | 7 | 0/0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | 1/0 |
| South Africa | 5 | 134 | 33.50 | 49 | 0/0 | 268 | 13 | 20.61 | 5/41 |
| Overall | 14 | 459 | 35.30 | 104* | 1/1 | 958 | 36 | 26.61 | 5/41 |