45 Facts About Colin McCool

Colin Leslie McCool was an Australian cricketer who played in 14 Test matches between 1946 and 1950.

Colin McCool made his Test debut against New Zealand in 1946, taking a wicket with his second delivery.

Colin McCool 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.

Three years later, Somerset County Cricket Club recruited Colin 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.

Colin McCool retired from cricket in 1960 and returned to Australia to work as a market gardener.

Colin McCool died in Concord, New South Wales on 5 April 1986.

Colin McCool played his childhood cricket on concrete wickets in Moore Park and learnt to bowl from reading Clarrie Grimmett's instructional book, Getting Wickets.

Colin McCool played his early grade cricket with Paddington Cricket Club before coming to the notice of the New South Wales selectors.

Colin McCool made his first-class debut for New South Wales against "Rest of Australia" in March 1940, making 19 and 15 and taking one wicket.

Colin 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.

Colin McCool enlisted on 12 September 1941 and served as a Pilot Officer with the No 33 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force.

Colin McCool 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.

Colin McCool was selected for the First Test at the same ground the following week.

Colin McCool 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.

The Third Test at Melbourne saw Colin McCool make his maiden Test century, 104 not out in a drawn match.

Colin McCool played in the remaining two Tests, making 272 runs at an average of 54 and taking 18 wickets at just over 27 apiece.

Colin McCool played in three Tests without much success, scoring only 46 runs and taking only four wickets.

Colin McCool 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.

Colin McCool played in all five Tests on tour against South Africa.

Colin McCool 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 Colin 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".

Part of the programme involved a vigorous recruiting campaign, including an offer to Colin McCool that saw him return to first-class cricket at the age of 39.

At Somerset, Colin 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.

Colin McCool 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.

Colin McCool was the backbone of a mediocre batting side, and he never departed from his natural attacking style.

Colin 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.

Colin 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.

Colin McCool's contribution was 1,590 runs and 46 wickets at, for him, the low average of 23 runs each.

In contrast to 1958, the 1959 season was hot and dry and Colin 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.

In 138 matches across the five seasons for Somerset, Colin McCool made 7,913 runs at an average of 33.82.

Colin McCool 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 bowling more than McCool.

Colin McCool made 146 catches, many of them at first slip, where he stood "rather deeper than usual".

Colin McCool had a round-arm bowling action, releasing the ball with his arm almost parallel to the ground.

Colin McCool was particularly good against spin bowling, even on difficult pitches.

Colin McCool was constantly amending his technique that season [1956], whenever he spotted a flaw in his method.

Colin McCool 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.

Colin McCool 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.

Many Australian cricketers do, more than English cricketers probably, but Colin McCool was in some ways an untypical Australian.

Colin McCool 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 Colin McCool "did not quite come to terms with the West Country".

Colin McCool would have preferred something like 'Hi, Col, you old bastard.

Colin 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.

Colin 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.

Colin McCool married Dorothy Everlyn Yabsley in 1943 in Sydney.

Colin McCool's 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.