The Melbourne Cricket Club is saddened to learn of the passing of former Australian Test cricketer and MCC player, Colin McDonald, and extends our deepest condolences to his family for their loss.
McDonald was the MCC’s 31st Test player and went on to play 47 Tests for Australia, making him the third most capped MCC representative. He was also an MCC premiership player and a member of the MCC’s Team of the Century.
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Throughout his Test career, McDonald scored a total of 3,107 runs which included five centuries – one of which was at the MCG in 1959 against England which saw him finish with a total of 133 runs and cement his place on the MCG Honour Board.
McDonald himself rated the 1961 Test match at the MCG between Australia and West Indies as one of his career highlights, scoring 91 runs from 175 balls in front of over 90,000 people.
McDonald also played 192 first class matches for Victoria and tallied 11,375 runs at a rate of 40.48.
MCC Committee Member and MCC Cricket Chairman Peter King reflects:
The Club is saddened to learn of the passing of Colin McDonald – a wonderful Club person of the MCC and former Australian Test cricketer.
A great cricketer at state and national level, one of Colin’s career highlights came at the MCG in a hard-fought innings of 91 runs against the West Indies, helping Australia to win the match and the series.
At the MCC, Colin was a tough cricketer. He was an MCC premiership player and a member of the Team of the Century and he had a long and significant presence around the Club. He made a great contribution to the game of cricket.
We send our condolences to Colin’s family and friends for their loss.
MCC Life Member and Former MCC President Paul Sheahan AM reflects:
Scottish by name, Scottish by nature.
Perhaps not the most fashionable cricketer of his day but was there ever a more doughty, stoical and courageous one? Described as a “tough-as-teak opener”, who can forget his performance in denying Jim Laker the 20th wicket in that fateful Test Match at Old Trafford in 1956 or standing like the castle keep against the might of the West Indies in 1960-61, to his own personal pain?
“CC”, as he was known in cricketing circles, was one of the Melbourne Cricket Club’s most favoured sons and he was one of their staunchest admirers.
Inevitably the end comes for everyone, but Australian cricket – and, dare I say it, Australia – has lost a veritable hero, one from whom many of the younger generation could have learned a great deal about the parry and thrust and the demands of the longer form of cricket. He had interesting ideas and he was not afraid to propound them, each one thought through carefully.
He was a man’s man, if one can use that term these days. He emerged from a different era and was puzzled by many modern developments but in no way did that diminish him as a sportsman and a friend; I, along with many others, shall miss him.