by Sachi Sri Kantha; published February 27, 2004
The Macartney Maneuver: a No-nonsense Straight Lesson from a Cricket Great
I’m a subscriber to the Lancet medical journal and the first page I check in a newly received issue is the one which features the humorous column ‘Jabs and Jibes.’ The Feb.21, 2004 issue of Lancet carried a feature by Clayton Goodwin under the caption ‘The aura of celebrity’ (page 668). It regaled a few humorous anecdotes from the game of cricket. The one which made me chuckle is a lesson taught by Charlie Macartney (one of Australia’s aggressive opening batsman of the early 20th century) to his young teammate Jack Fingleton. I reproduce Goodwin’s two paragraphs for their thought-provoking charm.
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| John Fingleton |
“Jack Fingleton, who achieved his own fame as a cricketer and even greater fame as a writer, also played as a youngster alongside one of cricket’s celebrities. He was invited to open the innings with the formidable Charlie Macartney, an aggressive batsman. As they walked to the crease Macartney instructed Fingleton to ‘keep your eyes open for the first ball.’
Young Fingleton thought he knew what that meant – Macartney would seek to impose his will on the fielders from the outset by running a very fast, stolen single. As the bowler delivered the ball, Fingleton started to run. To his horror, Macartney cracked the ball straight back down the pitch at head height causing the bowler, umpire, and batsman to dive to the earth in self-defence. The youth looked up to see the older man looking down at him sternly. ‘It’s always a good idea,’ he said, tapping his forehead in the middle ‘to aim the first ball right here at the bowler’s head.’ After that the bowler will be too preoccupied with his own safety to concentrate on his bowling.’ [Italics added for emphasis.]
This Macartney Maneuver, taught by Charlie Macartney (1886-1958) to Jack Fingleton (1908-1981) could not have occurred in a test match of cricket. When I checked the old cricket stats, I found out that Macartney debuted for Australia in 1907 and had his last test match in 1926. Fingleton debuted for Australia in 1931 and had his last test match in 1938. Thus, both Macartney and Fingleton didn’t play together in a single test match. It’s reasonable to believe that the great Macartney should have demonstrated this no-nonsense lesson to Fingleton, probably in an inter-state match. Nevertheless, still, it is a classic example of the age-old wisdom that offence is the best form of defence. It’s not for nothing that Charlie Macartney’s nickname, among cricket lovers was none other than the ‘Governor General.’
When I read this Macartney anecdote in the Lancet journal, it struck me that there is a lesson here for Tamils as well. It is said that sports are nothing but miniature warfare under controlled conditions with rules and referees (or umpires). Thus, the Macartney Maneuver does find applications in realms of human conflict (including politics, business, literature) other than sports as well, which hardly needs elaboration. The best recorded example of the Macartney Maneuver in warfare was the scalping of Gen.Isoroku Yamamoto by the Americans in the Pacific theater of the Second World War in 1943. While on an inspection tour in the Northern Solomon Islands,
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| General Yamamoto |
Gen.Yamamoto was ambushed by US Air Force planes and he lost his life near Kahili, Bougainville on April 18, 1943, barely after reaching his 59th birthday. His unfortunate death was kept secret from Japanese public by the then figuratively ‘decapitated’ Japanese powerholders for a month. It is evident even now in Japan that, after 60 years, the Japanese polity has yet to recover from the loss of Gen.Yamamoto.