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
left|thumb|350px|Stan McCabe's Test career batting performance. The red bars indicate the runs that he scored in an innings, with the blue line indicating the [[batting average (cricket)|batting average in his last ten innings. The blue dots indicate an innings where he remained not out. McCabe came to the wicket on the first day, the score at 3/82 with Bill Woodfull, Bill Ponsford and Jack Fingleton already dismissed, and Bradman not playing due to illness. After Kippax fell with the score at 87, McCabe and Vic Richardson added 129 before Richardson fell. McCabe reached stumps at 127 not out with the total 6/290. His innings was marked by dangerous cutting and compulsive hooking of short-pitched deliveries in front of his face, unfazed by the repeated body blows which hit his teammates. The crowd responded to his instinctive aggression with wild cheering. McCabe said that "it was really an impulsive, senseless innings, a gamble that should not have been made but came off against all the odds". Richard Whitington wrote in the 1970s that McCabe's innings "still warms the blood of the dwindling number of Australians who watched it". McCabe received a thunderous standing ovation from the 46,000 spectators. Immediately after the innings, McCabe told his teammates that he would never be able to replicate the feat because it was too difficult to hook the ball consistently without hitting it up into the air and giving away catching opportunities.
Umpire George Hele, who officiated the match said: