More to Marsh than just glove work

Rodney Marsh whose death was followed by the incomprehensible passing away of Shane Warne on a cruel March 4 didnrsquot end up getting the lengthy tributes that the king of spin didBut Marshrsquos deedsmdashon the playing field and off it as a retired cricketer mdashwere spread over continents and thoroughly deserving of the finest of accolades To top it all he was a character with a deep sense of historyIf Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson are credited for Australiarsquos grip on the Ashes urn in 197475 and 1975 after the Poms thatrsquos how Marsh described the Englishmen held it in the 197071 and 1972 rubbers their batsmen ought to be hailed as well Ditto the glove work of Marsh The English batsmen were tasked to score runs against some fearsome bowling but remember Marsh had to do some seriously painful collections behind the stumps ldquoIt hurts like hell but I love itrdquo he is believed to have said when asked about rsquokeeping to Lillee and Thomsonrsquos thunderbolts And it shouldnrsquot be forgotten that while Lillee ended his Test career at the conclusion of the fifth and final Test at Sydney in January 1984 as the worldrsquos highest wickettaker with 355 scalps Marsh bid goodbye to the traditional form as the record holder of dismissals behind the wicket with the same numberMarsh came into the side replacing Brian Taber who was the teamrsquos No1 lsquokeeper on the 196970 tours of India and South Africa He didnrsquot expect him to get picked and dozed off in a Queensland motel he was in the Sunshine state for Western Australiarsquos November 1316 1970 Sheffield Shield game at the Gabba only to be woken up in the morning by his wife Roslyn to be told about his selection in the Australian team In his autobiography Yoursquoll Keep Marsh wrote about taking a beer bottle from the fridge waking up his nondrinking roommate Derek Chadwick and raising a toast to his Australia selectionOf course this is not the beerrelated story that occupied pride of place in the Rodney Marsh story The one that did was his recordbreaking 45 cans consumed on a Sydney to London air journey for the 1983 World Cup via Singapore and Bahrain Doug Walters held the previous record of drinking 44 cans in the company of Marsh for the 1977 Ashes That was 12 years before David Boon gulped down 52 cansMarsh only felt smashed when the aircraft door opened at Heathrow as he revealed in his 1984 book Gloves Sweat and Tears Marsh could smash the ball around on the highest stage In the 197273 Adelaide Test he scored 118 to become the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a Test century He missed one by eight runs two seasons prior at Melbourne in his debut series when his captain Bill Lawry amazingly declared the innings closed with the rookie wicketkeeper on 92 not out ldquoI wasnrsquot at all upset about it In fact I was so delighted to have at last done something worthwhile in the seriesrdquo Marsh wrote in Yoursquoll KeepWhat Marsh was blue about was not being picked to lead Australia in the early 1980s and he believed that fellow West Australian Kim Hughes didnrsquot deserve to lead the countryHis 198384 retirement along with the exits of Greg Chappell and Lillee left a deep hole to fill But he continued to serve the game as selector commentator and probably more significantly through coaching and setting up cricket academies in Australia England India and the UAE He was also Englandrsquos selector during the 2005 Ashes series when they beat Marshrsquos country for the urn after 18 yearsHe could spot talent and mentor young players like only a few could Someone told me that he had only one look at a 15yearold Ricky Ponting at the academy in Adelaide and declared that he would play for Australia He had to deal with the media a bit but he didnrsquot appear to enjoy it In 1993 when he was still involved with the academy in Adelaide Marsh told a reporter that he didnrsquot think too much of Michael Slaterrsquos hundred at Lordrsquos in 1993 because it was scored off an ordinary England attack and that Slater would have made better 30s and 40s in Sheffield Shield cricket than that Lordrsquos 152He also said that the county bowlers were pie throwers When the English pressmen read that some of them contacted Marsh He claimed that his views were twisted out of context and he certainly didnrsquot use the words pie throwers The reportermdashAndrew Ramseymdasha friend of mine wrote in his book The Wrong Linemdashwhat happens on tour sometimes needs to be told that he couldnrsquot have been so creative with words at such an early stage of his journalistic career and Marsh had certainly uttered this When they met years later at a hotel lobby in Manchester Marsh wanted that old issue to be settled in the hotelrsquos car park My friend ldquopolitely declinedrdquo On Wednesday Andrew told me that Marsh and he patched up and in fact Marsh told Cricket Australia that he would only speak to him and not the rest because he was a ldquobloody good blokerdquoAnd thatrsquos exactly how Marshrsquos mates will remember himmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper