Today, Friday 24 October 2025, will mark the centenary of the birth of an often-overlooked cricketer who played a key role in the Australian side’s successes of the late 1950s and early ‘60s.
His raw career figures are unexceptional, while his style and team role would be unrecognisable to anyone familiar only with Bazball, Twenty20 and modern Test cricket.
Ken “Slasher” Mackay was described as “the best team man I ever had” by his captain Richie Benaud, who later wrote that he “was a number of things to me: he was a good tough cricketer, and in all the years I played and watched the game, he remained one of the finest of men and proudest Australians ever to walk on to a cricket field.”
Mackay generally batted at number six, and bowled first-change. He made his Test debut as one of five all-rounders in the same side, the others being Benaud, Keith Miller, Ron Archer and Ian Johnson. And in the majority of his Tests he was one of a quartet of all-rounders alongside Benaud, Alan Davidson and Bob Simpson.
Slasher wore his baggy green cap at an angle and chewed gum incessantly. He was instantly recognisable to spectators, and much-loved by them. Yet he was as unlike modern counterparts Cameron Green, Beau Webster and Mitchell Marsh, as anyone could possibly be.
The Age journalist Peter McFarline wrote of his boyhood hero that “There probably has never been a less athletic-looking creature to make it to the top in Australian cricket.” And legendary English commentator John Arlott described him as “walking with the slow motion, mock sinister walk of the villain in a mid-Victorian melodrama.”
In 37 games between 1956 and 1963, Mackay amassed 1,507 runs at a modest average of 33.48 without a single century, and captured 50 wickets at an average of 34.42. He claimed five wickets in an innings on just two occasions, and his career strike-rate was a wicket every 115 deliveries. During the course of nine series, he exceeded 200 runs in a series only twice, and ten wickets in a series just once.
Yet despite those underwhelming raw figures, ‘Slasher’ was left out of Australia’s side in only three matches during that eight-year period. Only Benaud and Davidson took more wickets in his 37 games, and only Neil Harvey, Norman O’Neill and Colin McDonald scored more runs. And Australia’s record in those matches was an impressive 18 wins, one tie, 12 draws, and just six losses.
The batter
Mackay’s nickname is as ironic- and as iconic- as those of Ashley “Rowdy” Mallett and Bert “Dainty” Ironmonger.
The left-hander earned the moniker by virtue of his lack of aggressive strokeplay, and resulting slow scoring rate. He generally scored no faster than the more recent Mike Brearley, John Dyson, Bruce Edgar and Chris Tavare.
His batting technique featured a crouched stance, bent knees, minimal backlift, dour defence, and superb judgement in leaving deliveries apparently just missing the stumps. England captain Peter May sneered “This man doesn’t hit the ball, he squirts it.” McFarline wrote that “he succeeded facing up to the world’s best bowlers in a manner reminiscent of WC Fields wielding a croquet mallet.”
While he made his first-class debut in 1946-47 at the age of 20 after serving in Papua New Guinea during WWII, he would have to wait a further 10 years to gain selection for Australia. It is likely that both his defensive style, and the fact that he hailed from unfashionable Queensland, counted against him. To force the selectors’ hand, he averaged 72.30, 50.28 and then 72.11 for the three summers that preceded the 1956 tour to England.
On Test debut at Lord’s, Mackay’s dogged all-round performance contributed greatly to his side’s only victory in a series dominated by Jim Laker’s 46 wickets. In Australia’s first innings, he amassed 38 runs from 126 balls with just four boundaries. And in its second one, he helped rescue his side from 3/69 by scoring 31 runs from 195 deliveries with only one four, while at the other end Benaud scored a swashbuckling 97 from 115 deliveries.
Ken “Slasher” Mackay. Photo: State Library of Queensland.
In between, he conceded just 15 runs from 11 miserly overs, and took the key wicket of Colin Cowdrey courtesy of a brilliant catch by Benaud. English writer Denzil Batchelor’s description of the dismissal was that “A cricketing sprat had been used to catch a whale.”
After then missing selection for Australia’s tour to South Africa in 1957-58, he earned a late call-up when fellow Queensland all-rounder Ron Archer failed a fitness test. In the 3-0 series win, his return was 375 runs at the Bradman-esque average of 125.00.
In seven innings he was dismissed only three times, while scoring five half-centuries at a glacial pace. Those innings included consecutive ones of 65 not out (from 257 deliveries), 63 (from 215), 32 (from 151), 52 not out (from 215), 83 not out (from 234) and 77 not out (from 191).
Mackay’s finest moment with the bat came during the ‘Tied Test’ series with the West Indies in 1960-61, during which he scored 289 runs at an average of 41.28. It took place on the last day of the fourth Test in Adelaide, with the series level at 1-1.
‘Slasher’ strode to the crease with Australia in crisis at 5-129, chasing an impossible 460 runs for victory. It struggled to 7-203 at the tea interval, and then slumped to 9-207 shortly thereafter.
Somehow, he and No.11 batter Lindsay Kline survived the match’s last 109 minutes without being parted. For the entire partnership they were surrounded by close-in fieldsmen, and Mackay allowed the match’s final delivery from paceman Wes Hall to strike him in the ribs rather than risk giving a catch.
Their unbroken tenth-wicket stand lasted 283 balls, and realised 66 effectively-meaningless runs. Mackay’s share was 62 runs in 223 minutes, while Kline contributed 15. Captain Benaud reportedly smoked sixteen cigarettes during the course of the partnership.
Crucially, it enabled Australia to begin the final Test with the rubber still level at 1-1. It won that game, and with it the series, by reaching its 258-run target with just two wickets to spare. Naturally, Slasher was at the crease to see his side home, undefeated on three runs from 51 deliveries.
Mackay’s highest Test score was one of 89 in Chennai in 1959-60, made in the relatively quick time of 203 minutes, and it contributed to an Australian victory by an innings and 55 runs. Ironically it was the only instance in his entire Test career, that his innings was ended by a stumping.
In his final series, against England in 1962-63, he scored an undefeated 86 from 269 deliveries at the Gabba. He would remain the Australian record-holder for the highest career aggregate to not include a century, until Shane Warne claimed the title from him 40 years later.
However when not under instructions, ‘Slasher’ could bat more expansively. Against Middlesex at Lord’s in 1961, he opened the batting and scored a whirlwind 168. For his beloved Queensland he played innings of 223 against Victoria at the Gabba in 1953-54, and 203 at the SCG in 1955-56, and scored 105 runs in a session with 20 boundaries against the MCC in 1962-63.
The bowler
Mackay’s right-arm medium-fast bowling appeared nondescript. In describing his run-up, Wisden used the term “apologetic,” while one English critic wrote that he could “forgive a man for limping, but not on both legs at the same time.” However he bowled a nagging length, and was able to swing the ball both ways and vary his pace cleverly. In addition, his immense stamina enabled him to bowl accurately for long periods.
‘Slasher’ was duly given the role of tying up one end while the likes of Miller, Davidson, Benaud, Ray Lindwall, Ian Meckiff or Graham McKenzie attacked from the other. He executed it perfectly, with a career economy-rate of just 1.78 runs per over.
It is the lowest figure since 1933, by any Australian who has taken 50 wickets. And it’s remarkable that someone who bowled at first-change on 31 occasions, and also took the new ball on one occasion, would finish a 37-match career with only 50 wickets, and a strike-rate of one wicket for every 115 balls delivered.
His finest series with the ball was in England in 1961. His tally of 16 wickets at an average of 32.81 was second only to Davidson, and played a large part in Australia retaining the Ashes by a 2-1 margin.
At Edgbaston he dismissed Ken Barrington, Mike Smith and Raman Subba Row in the space of four deliveries, to reduce the home side to 6/122. They were part of a match haul of 5/144 from 70 overs. And in Australia’s miraculous and Ashes-securing victory at Old Trafford, he claimed 2/114 from 53 overs.
Richie Benaud. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
At The Oval, his match figures were 7-196 from a marathon 107 overs. When Benaud gave him the honour of leading the Australian side from the field, he first paused and said “Richie, you’re a great skipper. I’ve bowled more overs in this Test than Ian Johnson gave me on the whole of the last tour.”
Mackay also found his bowling style perfectly suited to Pakistan’s matting pitches when Australia toured there in 1959-60. Instructed by Benaud to bowl Fazal Mahmood-style cutters, he took 10 wickets at an average of 19.00 while conceding only 1.46 runs per over. And he did so while wearing a pair of his captain’s boots because he had blistered feet. His match figures included 7/58 from 64 overs in Dhaka, and 3-111 from 59.4 overs in Karachi. On returning home, he was found to be suffering from hepatitis, contracted while on the sub-continent.
The post-script
Following Mackay’s last appearance for Australia, he played a final season for his beloved Queensland in 1963/64. His full first-class career comprised 201 games and yielded 10,283 runs at an average of 43.64 with 23 centuries, as well as 251 wickets at an average of 33.31.
During that final Test he was awarded an MBE for services to cricket, and following his retirement 400,000 fans contributed to a testimonial fund called ‘A Bob in for the Slasher.’ He later served Queensland as a selector and then head coach, and was elected a Life Member of the Queensland Cricket Association. Toombul Cricket Club’s ground in Nundah is named ‘Ken Mackay Oval,’ in his honour.
Sadly he would die aged just 56 from a heart attack, only a fortnight after his wife had passed away.
>Cricket News
%20(3).jpeg)
0 Comments