Pat McCarthy (cricketer)

{{Infobox cricketer

| name = Pat McCarthy

| image =

| country = Sri Lanka

| fullname = Patrick Covell Derrick McCarthy

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1919|10|24|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Ceylon

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2007|12|23|1919|10|24|df=yes}}

| death_place = Perth, Western Australia, Australia

| family =

| batting = Right-handed

| bowling =

| role =

| club1 = The Rest

| year1 = 1938-39

| club2 = Ceylon

| year2 = 1944-45 to 1945-46

| club3 = Western Australia

| year3 = 1950-51 to 1954-55

| columns = 1

| column1 = First-class

| matches1 = 10

| runs1 = 464

| bat avg1 = 23.20

| 100s/50s1 = 0/2

| top score1 = 98

| hidedeliveries = true

| wickets1 = –

| bowl avg1 = –

| fivefor1 = –

| tenfor1 = –

| best bowling1 = –

| catches/stumpings1 = 4/–

| date = 3 October 2017

| source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/6716.html Cricinfo

}}

Patrick Covell Derrick McCarthy (24 October 1919 – 23 December 2007) was a Ceylon-born cricketer who played first-class cricket for Ceylon in the 1940s before moving to Australia and playing for Western Australia in the 1950s.

In Ceylon

Pat McCarthy attended Royal College, Colombo, where he played in the cricket team for several years. In March and April 1936 he was a member of the Royal College team that toured Australia, the first tour of Australia by an Asian cricket team at any level of cricket. He was the team's highest scorer on the tour.{{cite news| work=Cricinfo | first=Wally |last=May |accessdate=3 October 2017| title=Pat McCarthy – a pioneer of Sri Lankan-Australian cricket|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/79635.html|date=17 February 1999}} He captained the team to victory in the Royal-Thomian match in March 1938.{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/560/560982.html| title = Royal College v S. Thomas 1937-38| publisher = CricketArchive| accessdate =3 October 2017}}

Two weeks after the Royal-Thomian match, aged 18, McCarthy played for Ceylon in a one-day match against the touring Australians, scoring 24 batting at number four.{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/136/136169.html| title = Ceylon v Australians 1937-38| publisher = CricketArchive| accessdate =3 October 2017}} He was one of several players from Ceylon who were invited to play for The Rest in the Bombay Pentangular over the years, appearing in the match against Hindus in 1938-39.Michael Roberts, "Sri Lanka: The Power of Cricket and the Power in Cricket", in Cricket and National Identity in the Postcolonial Age, ed. Stephen Wagg; Routledge, Abingdon, 2005, p. 140.{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/16/16843.html | title = Hindus v The Rest 1938-39| publisher = CricketArchive| accessdate =3 October 2017}}

During World War II McCarthy served with the Ceylon Garrison Artillery from 1940 until 1946, when he was demobilised with the rank of major.{{cite news| work=Daily News | first=Richard |last=Dwight |accessdate=3 October 2017| title=Oldest living Royal captain, Pat McCarthy, no more |url=http://archives.dailynews.lk/2008/01/07/spo07.asp|date=7 January 2008}} He represented Ceylon in their match against the Indian touring team in 1944-45, and against the Australian Services team in 1945-46.

McCarthy worked in Ceylon as a surveyor. He played for Nondescripts Cricket Club in Colombo, scoring two double-centuries, ten centuries and over fifty half-centuries before leaving for Australia in 1948.

In Australia

McCarthy played for several clubs in Perth grade cricket. He set a record for Mount Lawley which still stands when he scored 857 runs in the 1950-51 season.{{cite web | url = http://www.mtlawleyhawks.com/Club-Records.aspx?rw=c| title = Club Records: First-grade batting records| publisher = Mt Lawley Hawks| accessdate =3 October 2017}}

He appeared for the first time for Western Australia towards the end of the 1950-51 season, scoring a "hurricane" 88 against South Australia in his second match, when he added 90 in 80 minutes for the fifth wicket with Wally Langdon.{{cite news | work=Sunday Times | date=25 February 1951 | page=24 | title= Bradman sees bright cricket by W.A.'s Langdon and McCarthy| url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59597919}} On 6 February 1954 he was batting against New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground when the Duke of Edinburgh, in Australia during the 1954 Royal Visit, briefly stopped by to watch. McCarthy and his partners John Rutherford and Arnold Byfield added 61 runs in the 45 minutes in which the Duke was present, McCarthy hitting several boundaries. McCarthy was dismissed later for 98.{{cite news | work=The Sun | date=6 February 1954 | page=12 | title= W.A. hitter meets Duke, scores 13 in an over| url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230870761}}{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/20/20982.html| title = New South Wales v Western Australia 1953-54| publisher = CricketArchive| accessdate =4 October 2017}} One Sydney cricket writer described his innings as being of "almost prehistoric majesty and virility".Wisden 2009, pp. 1610–11.

Personal life

McCarthy married Yvonne Kelaart in Colombo in February 1942. They had two sons. Yvonne died in 1988, and Pat died in 2007.{{cite web | url = http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/gen1238.html| title = Sri Lanka Burgher Family Genealogy: Van Ranzow family #1238| publisher = Rootsweb| accessdate = 3 October 2017}}