Pat McCarthy - a pioneer of Sri Lankan-Australian cricket (17 February 1999)
Who was the first Sri Lankan to play representative cricket in Sri Lanka, before it achieved test status, and also play Sheffield Shield cricket in Australia
17-Feb-1999
17 February 1999
Pat McCarthy - a pioneer of Sri Lankan-Australian cricket
Wally May
Who was the first Sri Lankan to play representative cricket in Sri
Lanka, before it achieved test status, and also play Sheffield Shield
cricket in Australia?
This sounds like one of those trivial questions the Australian
television channel broadcasting the one-day matches puts to its
viewers. Except that with regard to the above question, the
achievements of pat McCarthy are far from trivial. Now Pat McCarthy
(79) lives alone in Perth-his wife died 11 years ago-surrounded by
memorabilia. Because of a bad knee he was not able to accept an
invitation to attend the ceremonial presentation of a bat by the
Chairman of the Board of Control of Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) to
the West Australian Cricket Association (WACA) on January 28. The bat
was autographed by members of the Sri Lanka team that won the World
Cup in Lahore in 1996.
McCarthy was missed at the ceremony since he is the oldest living
link in cricket between Australia and Sri Lanka. With this
presentation at the WACA grounds in Perth-Pat's old home ground-it
would be singularly appropriate to recall Pat's outstanding record as
a cricketer. Pat has made an invaluable contribution to the sport as
well as to furthering Australian-Sri lankan relations. His
achievements highlight for the present generation a great Sri Lankan
sportsman, a worthy exponent of the noble game of cricket from an
earlier era.
More than six decades ago, McCarthy had begun showing his prowess on
the cricket ovals of Colombo. Such was his cricketing ability that in
1935, at the age of 15, he was selected to play for Royal College. In
1936, McCarthy was included in the Royal College eleven captained by
Ryle de Soysa, that toured Australia-the first by an Asian team at
any level of cricket - and in 1938 he captained the College team.
McCarthy was his team's highest scorer on the Australian tour. the
legendary cricketer Bill Wood fully judged him at that stage to be a
better batsman than Keith Miller.
In 1938-18 years old and still a schoolboy, McCarthy (at that time
captain of Royal) was chosen to play for Ceylon against the
Australian Test team led by Don Bradman. He batted in the coveted No.
4 position. Stan McCabe captained Australia in this particular match
and Hassett and Badcock scored centuries for the visitors. Those were
the years when Australian and English teams travelled by ship and
were glad to go ashore in Colombo to shake off there sea legs by
playing a one-day match against the Ceylon side In the 1938 match,
McCarthy showed his fielding skills by caching both openers -
Fingleton and Brown - on the boundary. Pat continued his cricket
career with great success with the Nondescripts Cricket Club (NCC)
and is considered by many to have been the finest batsman to play for
the Club. This is despite the great array of top-flight NCC batsmen
who have represented Sri Lanka over the past several decades. His
favourite strokes were the hook and the straight drives on both sides
of the wicket. In the ten or so years prior to his departure for
Australia in 1948, Pat amassed a veritable mountain of runs scoring
two double centuries, ten centuries and over fifty half centuries in
A division cricket. His outstanding record for the Club has prompted
a leading cricket scribe to liken Pat to be to the NCC what M.
Sathasivam was to the Tamil Union and Sargo Jayawickreme to the SSC.
It is interesting to note that Pat's marriage to his wife Yvonne
linked him to the Kelaart family - a family that has produced many
Sri Lankan sportsmen of note in cricket, hockey and other sports.
Pat's cricketing prowess also earned him recognition in India. In
1939, he was one of two Sri Lankans invited to play for "The Rest" in
India's Pentangular tournament. The other four participating teams
were the Hindus, Muslims, Parsees and Europeans. One of Pat's most
vivid recollections of the Tournament was Lala Amarnath's double
century for the Hindus against "The Rest". Amarnath was garlanded by
spectators each time he scored fifty runs. Six years later (1945)
Vijay Merchant's Indian cricket team visited Sri Lanka and Pat scored
a scintillating 88 runs against a formidable attack that included
Amarnath, Mankad, Bannerjee and Rangachari. The innings was made more
memorable by two towering sixes that thundered onto the stadium roof.
Though cricket was the sport at which Pat excelled, his sporting
interests in Australia were by no means confined to cricket, the
"summer game". He also participated at a competitive level in
athletics, golf, rugger, soccer, swimming and tennis. In this regard,
Professor Tony Barker of the University of Western Australia in
Perth, cricket buff and historian of the WACA, after a recent
interview with Pat, speaks of his "remarkable all around skills."
Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that Pat was one of
the most versatile sportsmen the island of Sri Lanka has produced.
Pat's departure for Perth in Western Australia in 1948 was prompted,
among other considerations, by reasons of health. It did not, however
dim his enthusiasm for sport. Despite Sri Lankan cricket not enjoying
the high profile and reputation it does today, by ability, talent and
sheer weight of performance, Pat had the unique distinction of being
one of the Asian-Australians to secure a place in the West Australian
Sheffield Shield team (1951-53). Incidentally, this team was
captained by Keith Carmody whom Pat had met in Sri Lanka when Carmody
was a member of the touring Australian Services team.
Pat played from 1948-60 in the Perth metropolitan cricket
competition: the first three years under Carmody before moving to
other clubs between 1951-60, all of which recognised his leadership
qualities by making him captain. Perhaps 1951 was Pat's most
successful cricketing year in that during this season he amassed a
total of 980 runs in inter-state and Perth metropolitan competition
cricket. One memorable inter-state performance was his 88 against the
State of South Australia. For this performance he had the rare honour
of being personally congratulated for his stroke play by no less a
person than Sir Donald Bradman. Another outstanding achievement of
Pat was his 98 against the State of New South Wales in Sydney when he
had to battle with cricketing giants like Miller, Lindwall, and
Benaud who were in their prime.
Pat recalls in this interview with Professor Barker that he was only
two runs short of this century when he was trapped leg before wicket
by a Benaud top-spinner. Professor Barker also notes that the former
Australian national selector Lawrie Sawle and others leading
Australian cricketers to remember Pat as an exciting batsman always
out to wrest the initiative with bold aggression-a Sri Lanka
cricketing trait immortalised by the likes of Sathasivam and recently
by Sanath Jayasuriya.
When Pat retired from cricket in 1960 he returned to another of his
loves-golf. In 1962 he achieved every golfer's dream of a hole-in-one
and during his serious golfing years played with a handicap of three.
Living in retirement in Perth, Pat has one son living 15 minutes away
and their other in Sydney. Though he is not in the best of health, he
still has a wealth of memories and good friends to sustain him.
Cricket is often referred to as a gentlemen's game and this above all
personifies Pat as a cricketing gentleman of outstanding ability and
character. He brought into his cricket-as he does to his life-a sense
of fairness, common sense, charm and modesty which ensures the
respect of his fellowmen. He has been over the years, as many have
observed, a great unofficial ambassador for Sri Lanka in Australia.
He has always been a firm supporter of Sri Lankan cricket and
Rendered great assistance to visiting Sri Lankan teams. In the
cricket arena, he has been a trailblazer for Sri Lankans in Australia
followed notably by Malcolm Francke in Queensland and Dav Wahtmore
who played for Victoria and Australia.
In anyone's language, Pat McCarthy was indeed a Cricketer
extraordinary.
Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)