by Arunabha Sengupta
Melbourne 1953. Australia 2-1 up in the series. They batted first in the final Test. The indomitable Harvey scored 205 and hosts amassed 520. Sydney Morning Herald wrote: “Australia cannot lose the match. The only question now is whether South Africa can fight out a draw.”
However, the young South Africans kept at it. Waite 64, Watkins 92, skipper Cheetham 66 and young Roy McLean delighted all with a strokeful 81. The total 435.
Eddie Fuller of Western Province would never do anything worthwhile in Test cricket before or after that, but here he captured five wickets. Tayfield picked up three. Australia were 209 all out in the second innings.
The pendulum swung this way and that on the final day. Endean fell for a characteristically sedate 70, Watkins hit 50. Tension was mounting when Benaud bowled Funston to make it 191 for 4. Still 104 to win. Young McLean tugged at his cap and informed Cheetham, “Don’t worry Pop, I’ll get them for you.”
He proceeded to play an ugly wild swipe against the turn and was dropped by Arthur Morris first ball. And then, he blasted his way to 76 in 80 minutes with flashing cuts, drives and hooks.
The series was tied 2-2. The inexperienced South Africans were the first team to hold Australia in their backyard since Jardine had unleashed Bodyline in 1932–33.
For Denis Compton he a joy to behold. “Thank goodness for the McLeans of the world,” he wrote. “In the Leeds Test 1951 Eric Rowan’s double century dominated, Peter May celebrated with a century on debut, but it was the cheerful battering the 21-year-old McLean inflicted on our bowlers —and the hands of our fielders—that created the most vivid memories.”
Compton also said McLean was the greatest outfielder of the world.
At Old Trafford in 1955, South Africa needed 145 to win in 135 minutes. McLean entered at 23 for 2, and aimed a vicious, uncultured slog at Bedser first ball. Not out, said Dai Davies. And then he hooked Tyson for boundaries, swung Bedser for a six, and short-arm pulled the fastest delivery from the former past mid-on for four. 50 at a run-a-minute before being run out. South Africa won with four minutes to spare.
Not only was McLean a mainstay in the side of the 1950s, he wrote two delightful volumes on the two home series against England and Australia. Pitch and Toss and Sackcloth without the Ashes are both excellent books, full of cricketing insights and light-hearted player anecdotes.
At Durban in 1956-57, a friend promised him £50 for a three-figure score, and he got it. In the following Test at Wanderers he scored 93, a chancy affair all through before his luck finally ran out. “Don’t let anyone tell you a batsman does not need luck in making a decent score,” he wrote.
When Trevor Bailey got his double of 2000 runs and 100 wickets in that series, McLean compared him with ‘the other two’ in the club — Keith Miller and Wilfred Rhodes. “Just imagine the difference in spectator value between a Keith Miller and a Trevor Bailey either as bowler or batsman. Yorkshire’s Wilfred Rhodes, who started as No. 11 batsman for England and ended by opening, was much before my time, but I’m quite sure he could, despite the county of his birth, never have been as dour as Bailey.
At that moment Vinoo Mankad had 2,084 runs and 158 wickets in Tests. But of course he did not feature in McLean’s White world of cricket.
Charles Fortune considered McLean the best batsman in the world. However, that is parochial favouritism. True, Fortune was not quite aware of the world of Worrell, Walcott, Weekes, Hazare and Hanif; but he did see the likes of May and Harvey.
McLean scored 2120 runs in 40 Tests at 30.28. Exciting batsman he definitely was, but best? Only a society as closed as apartheid South Africa could even think in those terms.
After his days as a Test cricketer, he became an insurance salesman.
Roy McLean was born on 9 July 1930.