James Rainey Munro Mackay (9 September 1880 – 13 June 1953), better known as "Sunny Jim" Mackay, was an Australian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He was a right-handed opening

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who was likened in his youth to

Victor Trumper Victor Thomas Trumper (2 November 1877 – 28 June 1915) was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found ...

, and was considered unlucky to miss the 1905 Australian tour to England. Mackay was born in

Armidale, New South Wales Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 24,504 as of June 2018. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region. It ...

. He scored 203, 90, 194, 105, 102* and 136 for

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in the 1905/06 season, as well as six centuries for his club side, Burwood. Along with several other players he signed a contract with

Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground ...

to bring an English side to Australia and was suspended. He moved to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

where, while working at a diamond mine, he scored 247 runs at 35.28 for

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

in 1906-07 and was only left out of the South African team to tour England in 1907 because it was felt that he had not spent long enough in the country.''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' 1954, p. 928. His eyesight was damaged when a motorbike knocked him down and his brief but dazzling career was cut short. Mackay moved back to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and tried to regain his place in the New South Wales side but his injury was too debilitating and he was forced to retire. In just 20 first class matches from 1902/03 to 1906/07, he had scored 1556 runs at 50.19 with six hundreds and seven fifties. He worked on farms in the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

region and died in Walcha.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackay, James 1880 births 1953 deaths New South Wales cricketers Gauteng cricketers People from Armidale Cricketers from New South Wales