Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

22 firm Slazengers Ltd, Michael serving as chairman and managing director from the 1930s to the 1950s. Although both twins followed their father in also playing cricket, it was Michael who had the stronger record. It was surely a proud moment for Emile when, in May 1920, Michael equalled his father’s achievement by playing in a single first-class match, for the Navy against Cambridge University at Fenner’s. He did rather better than his father, scoring 7* and 6, batting at nine in the first innings and six in the second, and taking one for 55 and none for 18. He opened the bowling in the first innings and bowled Gilbert Ashton for seven. Another in the Cambridge side in this game was J.C.W.MacBryan who, four years later, would make his own record-breaking minimal impression on Test cricket by becoming the only cricketer who never batted, bowled, or kept wicket in his entire Test career. At least Emile McMaster managed better than that. The unlikeliest? The time has come to put McMaster’s Test career into some context. In terms of its brevity: l he is one of only 21 players whose Test careers ended on the day after they started (exclusive of those whose match had only one or two playing days, but where play would have taken place on additional days if the weather had permitted) l measured by the total length of his match in overs, at the equivalent of 132.4 six-ball overs McMaster had the joint third- shortest career of any Test cricketer, behind Jack MacBryan at 66.5 overs and Ali Naqvi at 132.2 l measured by the length of time he was actually on the field, 304 balls, McMaster’s was the shortest of all Test careers, apart from those of two players, Andy Lloyd 37 balls and Greg Loveridge c 42 balls, who retired hurt early from their only Tests l he is one of only five batsmen to be dismissed by the only ball he faced in Tests. The others were England’s E.J.Tyler, Australians Roy Park and Bill Hunt, and South African Gerald Bond. In terms of his performance: l he is one of just over fifty cricketers who batted but never scored a run in their entire Test careers l he is one of only 15 players who batted but did not participate in a single run – either their own or their partners’ – in their entire Test careers: that is, the only partnership/s they were involved in were runless l he is one of only seven players who did not score a run, or bowl, or keep wicket, or take a catch, in their entire Test careers The Unlikeliest Test Cricketer