Martin John McCague (born 24 May 1969) is a former professional

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played for the

England cricket team The England men's cricket team represents cricket in England, England and cricket in Wales, Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Maryleb ...

in three

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

in 1993 and 1994. McCague was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in Australia where he began his professional career.

Career

His development as a cricketer started in Australia, where he grew up.Cricket: 'I tried my nuts off every day'
''

The Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet new ...

'', 5 July 2009. Retrieved 2017-11-20. He played first-class cricket for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

who, due to his Northern Ireland origins, were allowed to field both him and an overseas player.Winnifrith J in Carlaw D (2024) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Three: 1946–1999'', pp. 242–246.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2024-02-29.) His selection for England drew negative comments from some cricket commentators including John Woodcock since he had started his career in Australia. It was not just English fans who disliked this: during the 1994–95 Ashes in Australia, when he hailed a taxi, the Australian driver called him a traitor and refused to take him. He bowled well on debut, taking four wickets for 121 in the first innings of the 1993

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test cricket, Test, One-day cricket, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nott ...

Test, but enjoyed less success in the next Test as

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

, going wicketless as Australia scored 653 for four declared. An injured shoulder, later diagnosed as a stress fracture of the back, meant that he missed the final Test of the series.Reed M (2006
Brief profile of Martin McCague
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2025-02-23. McCague had considerable pace but lacked control. With his experience of first-class cricket in Australia, his selection for England's Ashes tour of 1994/5 was not as surprising as is sometimes suggested. He started the tour well, taking 5 for 31 as England beat

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. But after England lost in the first Test at

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

and suffering from a stress fracture of his shins, he played in no more of the first-class matches or any of the

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s.England v Australia 1994–95, ''

Wisden Cricketer's Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'', 1996.
Available online
at

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved 2025-02-23.) In 1994 McCague took 15 for 147 in a championship match against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, including career best innings figures of 9 for 86, on his way to 57 wickets that season at 19.01. The following year he took 21 wickets in helping Kent to win the Sunday League. He continued to play for Kent until 2001, albeit intermittently at times, and later played

Minor Counties cricket The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

for

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

. He played two

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

matches in 2005 for a PCA Masters side.Martin McCague
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2025-02-23.

Personal life

McCague played one first team game for semi-professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

team

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct (Australia), precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. Laid out in a grid plan in three section ...

in 1990. He has two sons. According to Steve Marsh's autobiography, McCague consumed 72 pints of Guinness during his stag weekend in Dublin.Martin McCague

. Retrieved 2022-05-31.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCague, Martin 1969 births Living people England Test cricketers Cricketers from County Antrim Kent cricketers Western Australia cricketers Sportspeople from Larne Herefordshire cricketers Irish cricketers North Adelaide Football Club players