Colin McCool

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.

Colin Leslie McCool (9 December 1916 – 5 April 1986) was an Australian cricketer who played in 14 Test matches between 1946 and 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.

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.

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.

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 Toombul District Cricket Club in Brisbane and was selected in the Queensland cricket team.

Playing for Queensland, he formed a formidable partnership with wicket-keeper Don Tallon, who also played for Toombul.

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.

He made his Test début against New Zealand in 1946, taking a wicket with his second delivery.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As a child growing up in Paddington, 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.