Charles George Macartney was an Australian cricketer who played in 35 Test matches between 1907 and 1926. He was known as ‘The Governor-General’ in reference to his authoritative batting style and flamboyant strokeplay. Macartney’s flair was compared to that of Victor Trumper, and his determination to Don Bradman, who is generally regarded as the finest batsman in cricketing history.
About Charlie Macartney in brief
Charles George Macartney was an Australian cricketer who played in 35 Test matches between 1907 and 1926. He was known as ‘The Governor-General’ in reference to his authoritative batting style and flamboyant strokeplay. Macartney’s flair was compared to that of Victor Trumper, and his determination to Don Bradman, who is generally regarded as the finest batsman in cricketing history. He made his Test debut in 1907, primarily as a left arm orthodox spinner who was considered to be a useful lower-middle order right-hand batsman. His most noteworthy Test contribution in his early career was a match-winning ten wicket haul at Headingley in 1909, before being dropped in the 1910–11 Australian season. He reclaimed his Test position and made his maiden Test century in the same season, before establishing himself as the leading batsman on the 1921 Ashes tour. He topped the batting averages and run-scoring aggregates, which saw him named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1922. In later life he condemned modern batsmen; he would explain why he no longer watched cricket by saying: ‘I can’t bear watching luscious half-volleys being nudged gently back to bowlers’ He was posthumously inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2007. In the late 1940s, Macartney received a letter from a compiler of Who in Australia, seeking information on his life. In it, he said that he had no record of figures, nor was he concerned with them, nor I am concerned with how the runs are compiled and how wickets are taken, and in which good game of the good game is played.
He died in a car crash in Melbourne in 1968. He is buried in a suburb of Melbourne, near his childhood home, in the suburb of St Vincent’s. His son, Peter, also played cricket for Australia, and is a former Test batsman and a former Australian cricket captain. His grandson, Peter Macartney, is a current Australian cricket coach and coach-in-waiting at the University of Melbourne. He also played for Kent, Kent and Kent County Cricket Club, and was a member of the Australian Institute of Sport, the Kent Cricket Association and the Kent County Football Club. He has a son, Paul, who was a first-class cricket player who played for the Kent Under 21s and Kent Cricket Club in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His great-grandson, Paul Macartney is a cricketing legend, having played for Australia and Kent in the 1970s and 1980s. He retired from international cricket at the peak of his powers on the 1926 tour of England. He became the second Australian to score a hundred in the first session of a Test match, and did so on a sticky wicket conducive to bowling. He produced an Australian record score in England of 345 against Nottinghamshire. His innings was the fastest triple century in first- class cricket and the highest score made by a batsmen in a single day of play.
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