Line & Strength

From feared fast bowler to charitable crusader, Glenn McGrath’s reflections on a life well played are your cue to make strength of character your defining trait

- Daniel Williams

CALL IT THE AUDACITY of youth. Or maybe just crazy-brave. It was certainly vintage Glenn McGrath. New to the Australian side at a time when the West Indies ruled cricket, McGrath used a seemingly unwinnable series in the Caribbean to bombard the opposition with bouncers. And not just the batsmen. The brazen quick directed most of his firepower at their quartet of menacing and volatile fast bowlers.

Retaliatory concerns barely entered his mind. “I always suspected I was going to cop a couple, but I felt if I watched the ball I could get out of the way so I was more than willing to give it to them,” recalls McGrath, who’s equally happy to send down a few seamers for old time’s sake in a Sydney laneway. “It was an opportunity for me to lead the attack and show them what I was made of.” In the decades since McGrath has proven many times over that what he’s made of is rugged stuff.

INDESTRUCTIBLE