Between the beanpole kid, sixth pick for the Backwater (no kidding!) under-16 bowling attack who left outback Narromine to live in a caravan in Sydney’s Sutherland so he’d be noticed by grade cricket selectors, and the fast bowler who, upon retirement, was often praised faintly as the Dr Beat of metronomes, there was the small matter of 563 Test and 381 One Day International wickets. The man they called ‘Pigeon’ was a conspiracy, because a good conspiracy says it’s one thing while it does another. Unless you risked being called a conspiracy theorist you’d never come close to understanding him, and unless you exercised suspicion it wouldn’t be possible to reconcile all the unremarkable descriptions of his bowling with his world-record wicket tally.
The labours of this monotonous try-hard yielded statistics exceeding those of any merchant of pure speed, or anything approaching speed, who ever hurled a red or white ball. In 2020 England’s James Anderson passed 600 Test wickets – remarkable for a fast bowler – yet his statistics in every country against every team are notably inferior, as is his bowling average of 26.67. Fast bowlers naturally become back worn and arm weary, but McGrath’s effort, before retirement at the age of 38, to hold his average at 21 despite bowling thousands more deliveries than Ambrose, Marshall and Garner, all of whom boasted a similar average, is astonishing. The perennial Courtney Walsh bowled 774 more deliveries, at a good average of 24.44. Pigeon’s strike rate was better than that of any much-honoured contemporary such as Kumble, Warne, Muralitharan or Pollock. Unlike many, he succeeded in every condition against all competition.
“It’s about control, bowling where you want to bowl, a partnership with the guy at the other end.”
McGrath didn’t promise mayhem, had no flowing mane, bristling mo or colourful coif. No affectation, mere effectiveness. He didn’t seek
