Glenn McGrath

Glenn McGrath AM (b. 1970), philanthropist and former Test cricketer, is one of international cricket's greatest ever fast bowlers. Born in Dubbo and raised in Narromine, New South Wales, he started his career playing grade cricket in Sydney having been spotted by former Australian Test batsman Doug Walters. He made his debut for NSW in 1992 and played his first Test against New Zealand in November the following year. In 1997 he took eight wickets for 38 runs against England at Lords; he collected 32 wickets in the 2001 Ashes series and nineteen in the Ashes series of 2002–2003. McGrath achieved his best Test figures when he took eight for 24 against Pakistan in Perth in December 2004. That year, he became the first Australian fast bowler to play 100 Tests, and he scored his first half century at the crease in Brisbane. In 2005 he eclipsed West Indies paceman Courtney Walsh to become the fast bowler with the greatest number of Test wickets; and – along with his teammate Shane Warne – he remains one of only seven bowlers whose Test tally exceeds 500 wickets. McGrath was the Alan Border Medallist in 2000, Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1998, 1999 and 2005–2006, and in 2013 he was inducted into the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame. The NSW Australian of the Year for 2008, McGrath was named a Member of the Order of Australia in January the same year – both for his services to cricket and to the community through the McGrath Foundation. Established by McGrath and his late first wife Jane in 2005, the McGrath Foundation has since raised many millions for the support and care of breast cancer patients and their loved ones.

Sally Robinson studied at the National Art School in Sydney from 1970 to 1973 and subsequently became one of the leading Australian printmakers of the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s she returned increasingly to painting, developing an intricate and distinctive 'pixellated' style using stencils. A finalist for the Archibald Prize in 1999 and 2001, Robinson has been selected for the Portia Geach Memorial Award eleven times and has won it twice (in 2012 and 2019), and has also featured regularly in the Shirley Hannan Portrait Prize, which she won in 2016, and the Doug Moran Portrait Prize. Robinson's portrait of Glenn McGrath was the result of two formal sittings, supplemented by the use of Australian Cricket Board press pass that enabled her to watch and photograph the cricketer in action at the Sydney Cricket Ground in early 2003. The portrait 'features Glenn contemplating his next ball to a nervous English batsman', Robinson says, 'with Shane Warne in the distance, fielding in the slips.'

Gift of the artist 2003
© Sally Robinson