About Colin McDonald
Colin McDonald was recently in the news because he passed away at the age of 92. Hence, we felt compelled to write an in-depth article about him since he happened to be a veteran Australian cricketer.
Colin was born on 17th November 1928 in Victoria, Australia. You would be surprised to know that his cousin Keith Rigg and brother Ian McDonald were also cricketers. He was an opening batsman for the national cricket team.
He debuted in international test cricket on 25th January 1952 against the West Indian cricket team. With regards to first-class cricket in Australia, he used to represent the cricket team of Victoria. He also went on to become Victoria’s skipper. He played his last test match in July 1961 against Australia’s arch-rivals, England. The most surprising thing is, he retired way before the ODI format even began.
In total, he played 47 tests in which he managed to score 3,107 runs in full with a decent average of 39.32. With regards to the number of centuries and half-centuries, he scored 5 and 17 of them respectively.
His best score in test score was 170 runs. If we talked about his first-class career, he played 192 matches in total while scoring 11375 runs in total. His average in FC cricket was marginally higher than test cricket (49.48).
The top score that he made in first-class cricket was 229 runs. He also bowled a bit in this format and managed to take three wickets in his career. He also published his autobiography in 2009.
Overall, we can say that he had a decent cricketing career. We hope that future Australian cricketers would keep learning from his job.
Colin McDonald Test Debut
As you might recall, Colin made his test debut on 25th January 1952 against West Indies. He managed to make 32 runs in the first innings of the Australian cricket team and scored an even better 62 runs in the second innings.
If we talk about the match itself, then the Australians had won the toss and had taken the decision of batting first. This decision didn’t turn out well and they managed to score just 116 runs in total. Colin managed to become the highest scorer of his team in this innings.
In response, West Indies scored only 78 runs! A majority of their players struggled to score even 10 runs. In their second innings, the Australians managed to score somewhat better and put up a total 377 runs on the board.
West Indies was hence given a target of 416 runs which they failed to achieve and hence, Australia won the match.
Colin McDonald Last Test Match
Colin played his last ever test match in July 1961. As for his performance, he scored a half-century in the first innings (54 runs) and got dismissed after scoring just one run in his last ever innings.
The match took place in Leeds, England. The Australians had won the toss and had elected to bat first. They succeeded to score 237 runs in their first innings. Top scoring batsmen were Neil Harvey (73 runs) and Colin M. (54 runs).
Most of the Australian batsmen struggled to perform well in their first innings. The English in their first innings however scored a better score of 299 runs. This was due to a more robust performance of their top-order batsmen (Geoff Pullar 53, Colin Cowdrey 93 and Raman Subba Row 35).
Australia managed to score just 120 runs in their second innings and set a target of 59 runs for the English they quickly achieved.
Colin McDonald Death
Colin McDonald sadly passed away at the age of 92 on January 11th, 1992. Cricket Australia chairman shared some of his thoughts about his demise, saying that “Colin’s contribution to the Australian cricket will always be remembered.”
He made his country proud by having performed well in the international matches that he played. His death is perhaps a significant loss to the whole Australian cricketing scene and Australia as a country.
We want to express our deepest condolences are with the McDonald family, and we hope that God gives them the required strength to face this unbearable loss. On a better note, He managed to live a long and happy life surrounded by his friends and family.
Cricket fans and followers mourned his death worldwide and tweeted and posted about it on various social media websites. He will always be remembered as a great batsman and a human being.
