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Nothing Much to Write Home About Test players come and go,
some leaving an indelible mark on the game and others fading into relative
obscurity with only their place in the record books to signify the fact
that they have represented their country. Occasionally cricket
throws up an oddity. So spare a thought for the ignominious test career of
England’s Jack MacBryan. John “Jack” Crawford
William MacBryan (almost a cricket team in itself) to give him his full
nomenclature, was born in Wiltshire in 1892 and died in Cambridge 90 years
later. At the time of his death he was England’s oldest surviving
cricketer. But his long life was
overshadowed by his exploits, or rather lack of them, on the cricket
field. By all accounts MacBryan
was a right handed batsmen of some ability and was regularly Somerset’s
leading run scorer in the years immediately after the First World War. For
much of the war years MacBryan was a prisoner of war, latterly in Holland,
where he was able to hone his cricketing skills. He was called up for the
fourth test against South Africa at Old Trafford in July 1924, just four
days after his 32nd birthday. There must have been great
rejoicing in the MacBryan household that young Jack had finally made it
into the test team. So what made this able
batsmen legendary in the history of world cricket? It is simply the fact
that he achieved absolutely nothing. The match was badly
affected by rain – the curse of Manchester. South Africa scored 116-4 in
66.5 overs. MacBryan didn’t take a catch or bowl. It isn’t recorded
how many times he actually fielded the ball but one would suggest it would
have been a handful at the most. The heavens opened and
the rest of the match was washed out. So Jack never got the chance to bat
either and in the next game he was replaced and never picked again despite
regularly topping the Somerset averages and being named Wisden Cricketer
of the Year in 1925.
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