Stan McCabe

Stanley Joseph McCabe (16 July 1910 – 25 August 1968) He was never dropped from the Australian Test team and was known for his footwork, mastery of fast bowling and the hook shot against the Bodyline strategy. He also regularly bowled medium-pace and often opened the bowling at a time when Australia lacked fast bowlers, using an off cutter. He was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1935.

At the age of 19, McCabe was called up for the 1930 tour of England despite being yet to score his maiden first-class century as the selectors chose the youngest ever team to leave Australia. McCabe made his first century in a warm-up match but struggled in his month in England, scoring only 51 runs. His performance began to improve after adjusting his technique and he played in all five Tests, although he continued to have problems converting starts into large scores, failing to make a century during the tour. McCabe managed to maintain his position over the next two home seasons, playing in all ten Tests, but failed to make a century, and after 15 Tests, his average was below 35 although he had become increasingly successful at first-class level.

In 1932–33, McCabe made his breakthrough at international level in the First Test of the infamous Bodyline series, scoring an unbeaten 187 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in only four hours as his teammates fell around him. McCabe attacked the bowling vigorously, hooking relentlessly. He ended the series as the only Australian other than Bradman to score a century. McCabe missed most of the next season due to illness, but was retained for the 1934 tour of England despite his interrupted preparation. He scored 2,078 runs and eight centuries for the tour, including his maiden Test century in England. Following the retirement of captain Bill Woodfull at the end of the tour, McCabe became Australia's vice-captain and held the post for the rest of his career.

After missing most of the 1934–35 domestic season due to injury, McCabe scored an unbeaten 189 in the Second Test of the 1935–36 tour of South Africa, including a century in one session, taking Australia to the brink of a world record-breaking victory on a difficult final-day pitch in poor light before the match was called off. It was one of two Test centuries McCabe made on the tour. The following season, he made five fifties in the first four Tests before scoring a century to help Australia win the deciding final Test against the touring Englishmen. In the First Test of the 1938 tour of England, McCabe played what was regarded as his greatest innings, scoring 232 in four hours, including his last 72 in 28 minutes. Bradman regarded the innings as the greatest batting he ever saw. However, none of McCabe's three most famous innings resulted in an Australian victory; he has a reputation of being at his best when Australia was in difficulty.

During the 1938 tour, McCabe had been generally unproductive and he missed much of the subsequent Australian season due to illness and only played sporadically thereafter before cricket was cancelled due to World War II. He served in the military in a clerical position for a year before he was discharged due to chronic feet problems. McCabe was plagued by poor health in his middle age, and was hospitalised for a liver ailment shortly before his death. He died at the age of 58 after falling off a cliff adjacent to his home in Mosman. There was innuendo that it was a suicide, but the coroner ruled that it was an accident.

Early years McCabe's paternal grandparents settled in Grenfell, New South Wales in the 1850s; his grandfather Constable Edward James McCabe was an Irish policeman who immigrated to Australia and served in the Victorian Police. Edward left the constabulary and moved from Melbourne to Grenfell after reports of a gold rush. Edward's wife Catherine was ambushed by bushrangers during her relocation to the town with her children three weeks later, but was unharmed. The bushrangers scoured the family's possessions, but left after finding nothing of value. Her obituary described her as "one of the greatest of the pioneer women of the Australian bush, possessing all the qualities of self-sacrifice, resourcefulness, industry, determination, and courage that left their mark on the Australian race and laid the foundation of the nation". Her grandson, one of 37 grandchildren, was likewise known for his fearless and courageous play on the cricket field against the most intimidating bowlers of his time. After a month in the Second XI, McCabe was promoted to the Senior First XI at 14 as an all-rounder. Aside from playing cricket, he was also full-back in the school's championship winning Rugby union team in 1926. During his time at St Joseph's McCabe grew larger and batted more powerfully, and his exploits were regularly featured in the yearbook. Such was his power that the backyard fence at the home of a friend had to be reinforced—McCabe's powerful square drives had been dislodging it. McCabe did not receive special coaching attention from the school's staff, who merely encouraged him to hit the ball hard and along the ground. In his later years at school, he was selected for Combined Great Public Schools of Sydney—a combined team from Sydney's private schools—for the state schoolboys' carnival. McCabe then left school and became an accountant's assistant.

He returned to Grenfell at the end of the 1926, and spent two years playing for the Grenfell Juniors, Then state and future Australian selector Chappie Dwyer, who led a team of Sydney Grade Cricketers to play in the country town. In the 1927–28 season, McCabe played for the Southern Districts against other regional sides within the state. He made 92 not out in one match, but failed to pass 12 in six other innings. Dwyer returned in 1927–28 and McCabe scored 70 against his team. Dwyer convinced McCabe's parents to allow their son to move to Sydney to further his cricket career. He made 60 and 34, and bowled 17 overs without success,

During the 1929–30 season, McCabe totalled 844 runs at 56.27, making him the second-highest runscorer behind Bradman, as New South Wales won the Sheffield Shield. Despite his consistency, McCabe had difficulty capitalising on his starts. He passed 50 on eight occasions in the first eight matches of the season, and reached 29 in ten of his 12 innings, but failed to make a century, falling seven times between 60 and 90. As a result, the team was dubbed "Woodfull's kindergarten". In the traditional warm-up matches before the team sailed for England, McCabe struck 103 against Tasmania, his maiden first-class century. McCabe's fortunes changed in the next match against Oxford University; he scored 91 and took 1/5 in an innings win. He added 65 in the next match against Hampshire and starred with both bat and ball against Cambridge University, the final tour match before the First Test. McCabe scored 96 before being run out, and took 4/25 and 4/60, which would remain his career best match bowling figures, as Australia completed a commanding innings victory. McCabe and Don Bradman were scoring quickly and had taken the score to 3/229 when McCabe lofted Maurice Tate towards mid-on. Syd Copley, a member of the ground staff who was acting as a substitute fielder dived forward and took a difficult catch. McCabe's dismissal sparked a collapse of 7/104 as England took a 93-run win. McCabe scored 44 and an unbeaten 25 as Australia squared the series with a seven-wicket triumph in the Second Test at Lords. With the series locked at 1–1, the Fifth and final Test at The Oval was a timeless Test. McCabe scored his first Test half-century of 54 as Australia piled on 695 to win by an innings and reclaim the Ashes 2–1. McCabe took one wicket in the deciding match, bowling leading English batsman Wally Hammond for 13. However, he was unable to register a century on tour, his highest score being 96. On one occasion, a particularly fast Gilbert delivery supposedly evaded both the batsman and wicket-keeper, travelled more than 60 metres and crashed through a fence before hitting and killing a dog on the other side. On this day, Gilbert knocked the bat out of Bradman's hand before removing him for a duck. Gilbert cut down the New South Wales top order with a spell of 3/12 and forced Alan Kippax to retire hurt after hitting him in the upper body. This left New South Wales at effectively 4/21. Undeterred, McCabe came in and bravely counterattacked in a display that featured many aggressive hook and cut shots. despite McCabe not being able to contribute in final match of the season; he injured himself while in the field and was unable to bat in a 132-run defeat at the hands of South Australia. McCabe scored 22 and 71 and took two wickets in the Third Test win in Melbourne, but managed only two runs and three wickets in the last two Tests, which Australia won by an innings. McCabe ended the season with 783 runs at 87.00 and 19 wickets at 23.94. McCabe played in 48 of the matches;

Bodyline

Umpire George Hele, who officiated the match said:

Stan gave Voce all he was bargaining for. He and Vic Richardson took all the English bowlers could hurl at them. This innings stamped Stan as one of the world's greatest batsmen. He stepped into the [trajectory of the] bowling, he hooked, he pulled, and did what he liked with it. The faster they bowled the more he seemed to enjoy it. McCabe was one of the few Australians to make any impact in the second innings, making 32 as Australia fell for 164.

McCabe was unable to repeat his performances in the later Tests. He made 32 and a duck as Australia gained its only victory in the Second Test in Melbourne, before managing only 57 runs in the next four innings as Australia suffered consecutive defeats. He scored 73 in the first innings of the Fifth Test in Sydney as Australia compiled 435, but scored only four in a second innings collapse, leaving England with an eight-wicket victory. He had persisted with his strategy of standing his ground attacking the Bodyline bowling, but was unsuccessful.

McCabe totalled 385 runs at 42.78 for the series and was the only Australian batsman other than Bradman to score a century, as the English decisively won the series 4–1. In the next match, the last fixture before the Tests, McCabe made 142 against Lancashire. The hosts gave McCabe a taste of his own medicine, and he had to bowl 45 overs for a match total of 1/133, as England's batsmen totalled 10/750 for the match. McCabe finished the tour with 108 against Kent and 124 in an innings win over HDG Leveson-Gower's XI a took 21 wickets for the entire season. McCabe enjoyed more success, heading the Test batting figures with 420 runs at 84.00. forced the umpires to glue the bails to the wickets using chewing gum, In the following Test in Johannesburg, McCabe made 34 as Australia took a first innings lead of 93. However, Dudley Nourse scored 235 to help the hosts to 491; McCabe removed Nourse and ended with 2/30. Regarding McCabe was his most important batsman, Richardson implored him to bat and told him to simply stand his ground and hit boundaries so that he would not have to run. after Fingleton was dismissed at 2/194. The pair had put on 177 runs for the second wicket, and McCabe had done more than four fifths of the scoring. McCabe pushed the score to 2/274, and with only 125 runs needed with half the day remaining, Australia were on course to meet the target, having already scored 189 in the first half. However, Herbie Wade, the South African captain made an unprecedented appeal against the light due fear "for the fieldsmen's safety" in the face of McCabe's aggressive batting. He finished unbeaten on 189, an innings described by Fingleton as "bordering on miraculous".

After the Second Test, McCabe was involved in an infamous incident that has caused speculation ever since. His captain Bradman was known for his reserved personality, did not drink and often eschewed social activities with teammates, preferring to privately listen to music or read. Combined with his success, Bradman gained a reputation for cockiness. In the 1930s, Australia had been divided along sectarian lines, with a sizeable Irish Catholic minority that included McCabe often pitted against Anglicans and/or Protestants such as Bradman (of Anglo-Irish descent), particularly practitioners of Freemasonry, leading to speculation that the tension was fuelled by religion. Four of the five Catholics in the team, McCabe, leading bowler Bill O'Reilly, along with Leo O'Brien and Chuck Fleetwood-Smith were summoned by the Board of Control to respond to allegations that they were undermining Bradman. During the meeting, players were variously accused of undermining Bradman's authority, laziness, lack of attention to fitness, but the board refused to specifically accuse those summoned. The details were leaked to the media, but the board denied that the meeting had taken place.

Australia were now 0–2 down and needed to win three Tests in a row to retain the Ashes. The pressure on McCabe increased when last-minute injuries meant that he had to open the bowling. McCabe made 63 and 22 and took a wicket as Australia won their first match in the series. He then top-scored with 88 in Australia's first innings of 288 and made 55 in the second as Australia won by 148 runs in the Fourth Test in Adelaide to level the series. In the deciding Test at the MCG, McCabe scored 112, one of three centuries as Australia amassed 604, a record score in Ashes Tests in Australia. This laid the platform for the innings victory that retained the Ashes. McCabe aggregated 491 runs in five Tests at 54.55, with a century and five fifties in a consistent display. In the second tour match, McCabe scored 110 in an innings win over Oxford University. His 50 against Essex in the final match before the Tests was the only other fifty in the first nine matches, in which he scored 301 runs at 37.62.

McCabe's most highly rated innings came in the First Test at Trent Bridge. England compiled 8/658 before declaring late on the second day, and McCabe had toiled for 21 overs without success. having seen Brown dismissed for 48. McCabe had struck three boundaries by this stage, two cut shots and an on drive, and had survived a final spell from fast bowler Ken Farnes without a sightscreen, accompanied by nightwatchman Frank Ward.

The next morning, England's bowlers continued to make regular inroads. Ward fell in the third over of the day, and the debutant Lindsay Hassett was dismissed soon after, leaving Australia at 5/150. McCabe, who had hit two boundaries thus far in the morning, was joined by Jack Badcock. The former continued to score boundaries regularly, and hit Sinfield for four and three from a leg glance and late cut to reach his 50 in 90 minutes. He then hit Hammond for consecutive on-driven fours before Badcock fell at 6/194, having made only 9 of the 43 runs in their partnership. McCabe had struck 62 of the 83 runs added since he had come to the crease. With all the other specialist batsmen dismissed, McCabe was now batting with wicket-keeper Ben Barnett and began to attack the English bowlers with powerful drives and hook shots.

Despite Hammond's best attempts, McCabe was able to gain the strike and runs came quickly. McCabe reached his century in 140 minutes and England declined to take the new ball while he was batting. and it was reported that the Australian captain trembled while watching the innings. Neville Cardus said that the innings was one of the greatest in Test history. Wisden reported that McCabe played "an innings the equal of which has probably never been seen in the history of Test cricket; for the best part of four hours he maintained a merciless punishment of the bowling". Cardus said

The innings was not enough to avert the follow on, and in the second innings, McCabe made 39 as Australia made 6/427 and the match petered into a draw. It was part of a three-week run in which McCabe failed to pass 15 in six innings and did not take a wicket. This included a world record score of 364 by Len Hutton, who was dropped by wicket-keeper Ben Barnett from McCabe's bowling before reaching 50. Neither Bradman nor Fingleton were able to bat. McCabe made 14 and two, and finished the series with 362 runs at 45.25. McCabe had also been in poor form apart from his double century at Trent Bridge and there was speculation that he was in decline. O'Reilly said that "All three of them were the greatest innings I have watched".

Upon returning to Australia, McCabe continued to captain New South Wales, but only played in two matches during the 1938–39 season due to illness, scoring 141 runs at 47.00 including one century. McCabe had always been susceptible to illness and was dogged for much of 1938 and 1939. In his absence, New South Wales surrendered their title to South Australia, but they regained the mantle in 1939–40 upon the return of their captain. In his first match back, McCabe scored 98 to guide New South Wales to a three-wicket win over Queensland. After losing their next two matches, McCabe's men won their last three matches to take the title. The captain scored 59 and 55 and 49 and 114 in the last two matches against South Australia and Victoria respectively. A match between the Shield champions and the Rest of Australia was arranged and McCabe scored 72 and 96, steering his team to a narrow two-wicket win. He ended the season with 699 runs at 53.76 from seven matches, with a century and six fifties.

In 1941–42, McCabe played his final first-class match. He scored 8 and 41 as Queensland took a 17-run win. Fellow state and Australian batsman Bill Brown described McCabe as the "finest strokeplayer I ever saw",

Later years and family life

McCabe was briefly a member of the Australian Defence Force during the Second World War, joining in late 1942. Due to his poor health and feet, he knew that his utility would be limited, and he also had a newborn son and fledgling business at the time, so he had not rushed to enlist at the start of the war. Due to McCabe's incapacitation, he was given a clerical job at the Victoria Barracks. He stayed in the role for 12 months before his feet problems resulted in an early discharge. He was appointed to serve on the Sydney Sports Ground and Cricket Ground Trust and operated a sports store in George Street, Sydney from its opening until his death. as did paceman Ray Lindwall after the war, Lindwall opted to work for McCabe because he was offered leave to travel overseas for Test tours. After the end of his first-class career, McCabe became a keen recreational golfer, but stopped playing in the mid-1950s due to his foot problems and other health issues. In 1956–57, McCabe and O'Reilly were given a testimonial match by the New South Wales Cricket Association.

McCabe married Edna May Linton on 5 February 1935 at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, and the couple had two children, a son and a daughter, Plagued by ill-health in his middle age, McCabe's fitness was further hindered by his feet, which prevented him from exercising. He thus gained a lot of weight, and heavy smoking wore down his body, as did the large number of people who wanted to meet him. McCabe weakened significantly in the last two years of his life and was hospitalised for a period for liver problems. He was released from hospital soon before his death, but still aged 58, was a very frail man who moved very tentatively.

Death and legacy McCabe died of a skull fracture after falling from a cliff at his home in Mosman, New South Wales after attempting to dispose of a dead possum. falling down and rolling off the steep slope in his backyard and over the ledge of the cliff abutting the rear of his house. However, the coroner ruled that the death was accidental and his family strongly denied that he had chosen to end his life.

McCabe was buried in Northern Suburbs cemetery. In June 2021, he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame as one of the special inductees to mark the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship final.

Test match performance

Batting Bowling Opposition Matches Runs Average High Score 100 / 50 Runs Wickets Average Best (Inns) 24 1,931 48.27 232 4/10 1,076 21 51.23 4/41 10 621 56.45 189* 2/2 341 12 28.41 4/13 5 196 32.66 90 0/1 126 3 42.00 1/16 Overall 39 2,748 48.21 232 6/13 1,543 36 42.86 4/13