It's mainly for the sheer amount of innings he played which contributed to wins for Australia or led to Australia saving the match. 6th best of all time in terms of aggregate. It helped that he played in a very good team, I'll admit.Wouldn't have picked MWaugh as better than Crowe or Gower.
I would have liked to seen him higher as well, along with Trumper.Fascinating stuff, although hugely disappointing to see Stan McCabe so low - I blame Bradman - if he'd played some sport other than cricket I reckon Stan would have got twice as many runs as he did
I prefer to think that, like Keith Miller, Stan needed a challenge, and that the cricketing equivalent of taking candy from a baby never appealed to himI would have liked to seen him higher as well, along with Trumper.
It's those great innings that they played which sticks in our minds the more we read about them, whereas a cold, heartless analysis would suggest that both men were somewhat hit and miss.
Fair enough, thanks.Yeah, McCabe's great innings were the bodyline 187* (16.54) and the match saving 232 at Nottingham (20.11).
The 189* against South Africa just misses the cut (12.37), due to only 2 Australian wickets falling in the innings (274 for 2).
He took is own life didn't he?He was actually two years younger than The Don, but was plagued by ill-health and injury so there was never any realistic chance of him playing on after the war.
I’ve just read something I'd never seen before about the reaction to his tragically premature death:
“News of McCabe’s death was made public while Australia and England were playing in the Fifth Test at The Oval. After the death was announced over the public address system, the crowd spontaneously stood up and took off their hats, and did the players, and they observed a self-initiated moment of silence.”
WAG.
A simple but tragic accident....He took is own life didn't he?
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. He had earlier told Dwyer of his plan to clean out his backyard, and was told to rest, but did so anyway, falling down and rolling off the steep slope in his backyard and over the ledge of the cliff abutting the rear of his house. There was innuendo that McCabe had actually committed suicide, with O'Reilly musing "He had despatched the possum, but had gone overboard with it!". However, the coroner ruled that the death was accidental and his family strongly denied that he had chosen to end his life. The coroner’s investigation noted that McCabe’s hands had tufts of ripped grass in them, indicating that he had tried to grab onto vegetation in a vain attempt to stop his fall.
Stan McCabe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia