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McGrath grew up in Narromine, New South Wales, and was picked for his state team in the 1992/93 season, and by the next Australian summer was in the national side after playing only eight State matches. Not the quickest bowler, even at the start of his career, he instead relies on unerring accuracy, and the ability to make the ball seam a little off the pitch. He can also generate steep bounce using a high arm action and the advantage of a 198 cm (6'6") frame. McGrath has had success against every opposition team, in both test and one-day cricket. He deliberately (and publicly) targets the opposition's best batsmen; at the beginning of a series against the West Indies he stated in interviews that he aimed, for his 300th wicket, to dismiss star batsman Brian Lara. He did so; what even McGrath could not have predicted was that it was in the middle of a hat trick. The targeting of oppostition batsmen has worked; he has dismissed Mike Atherton of England 19 times, as well as having hoodoos over Brian Lara and to a lesser extent Sachin Tendulkar. McGrath is a competent outfielder with an excellent throwing arm; not known for his athleticism, on one memorable occasion in 2002 he took a truly exceptional outfield catch at the Adelaide Oval against England, dismissing English batsman Michael Vaughan off the bowling of Shane Warne, running many metres before leaping into the air and catching the ball with arms outstretched and his body horizontal. His captain, Steve Waugh, described the famous catch as "a miracle" and "one of the great catches in history". McGrath's batting prowess, in the early phases of his career, was non-existent, in fact, he scored first-ball ducks {zero runs} on both his Test and One-Day International dèbuts. Years of patient tutelage from captain and friend Steve Waugh have improved this aspect of his game, to the point where has has scored a first-class half century on a season in county cricket. His first half-century in a test match came on 20th November 2004, against New Zealand at Brisbane (Gabba). A bet was made with Mark Waugh that he would accomplish this feat, thus the elegant batsman has lost out to his fast bowling counterpart. Nevertheless, McGrath is regarded as a genuine batting 'bunny', to his credit coaching from Steve Waugh and others has pushed his average above 6.00 runs/innings and with this latest feat temporarily above 7.00 runs/innings. In the first World Cricket Tsunami Appeal match, he was promoted to bat at number 6 ahead of Stephen Fleming and Matthew Hayden, but was dismissed first ball trying to slog Muttiah Muralitharan. Whilst fiery, confrontational, and on one or two rare occasions on the field ill-disciplined (i.e in his 2003 encounter with Ramnaresh Sarwan in the West Indies), off the field he is generally reputed to be quiet, friendly, and uncomplicated. He is married with two children; his wife, Jane, is a former flight attendant. Jane has successfully fought a battle with breast cancer and a second one with a bone cancer. McGrath has used his profile to raise money for breast cancer charities. His most well-known hobby is hunting wild pigs, a pest animal in some parts of Australia. Clearly, McGrath despite the trappings of cricketing fame is still a 'country' boy at heart, harking back to his early days at Narromine where ironically he couldn't even get a bowl for his local team. Trivia
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