Wisden overview
In an era of cricket academies and scientific coaching methods, it's unlikely the game will again foster a Test player with the homespun technique of Ken "Slasher" Mackay. A crouching, knock-kneed left-hand squirter of runs, he probably let more deliveries pass closer to his stumps than any batsman of his time. He also scuttled in to bowl a nagging low-armed medium-pace, and masticated his gum so compulsively that the burghers of Queensland Cricket Association requested (unsuccessfully) that he stop. Much of his best cricket was played away, in South Africa in 1957-58 where his lengthy entrenchments drove Hugh Tayfield to distraction, and in 1959-60 where his 7 for 58 from 64 overs on the Dacca mats spirited Australia to their first Test victory in Pakistan. But the peak of his popularity came 15 months later, when he batted through the last session of the Adelaide Test to ward off West Indies, inspiring Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper to inaugurate a "Bob In For Slash" testimonial fund. From one donor, an elderly lady, came the tribute: "Slasher, yer blood's worth bottling." Mackay's 1964 autobiography, Slasher Opens Up, is a delightful curio. Gideon Haigh

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