Six feet two inches (1.88m) tall,[1] and a bowler of genuine pace who could command a deadly off-cutter,[2] he opened the bowling for South Africa in his 15 Tests, spanning 1948 to 1951.

On a pitch freshened by a sharp shower[3] he produced his best bowling figures in his debut Test against the touring England team on his home turf at Kingsmead, taking six wickets for 43 runs in the second innings.

He bowled extremely well in taking forty-four wickets for the university at an average cost of little over seventeen each,[7] but a controversy arose when at Worcester McCarthy became the first bowler to be no-balled for throwing in English first-class cricket since 1908.

He was still allowed to bowl for the rest of the match, and was thought so good that he played for the Gentlemen at Lord's and Scarborough, without meeting with pronounced success.

However, he was not chosen and his only later cricket was in the Minor Counties Championship for Dorset, where he settled in subsequent years before returning to South Africa as a farmer.