Rod Marsh

Did You Know?

• Marsh was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1982 New Year Honours.
• Actor Brendan Cowell portrayed Rod Marsh in the 2012 Australian miniseries Howzat! Kerry Packer's War.
• Marsh's death on 4 March 2022 came on the same day as that of fellow Australian cricket icon Shane Warne.

Early years

Rod Marsh came into the world on 4 November 1947 in Armadale, a Perth suburb, to parents Barbara and Ken. He grew up playing backyard cricket with his older brother Graham, who later became a professional golfer with eleven European Tour victories. Both boys played schoolboy cricket for Western Australia. Marsh’s first competitive game came at age eight, keeping wicket for the Armadale under-16s.

By thirteen he was captaining the state schoolboys’ side and had joined the West Perth district club. When he broke into West Perth’s first XI, he played purely as a batsman because the club already had a wicketkeeper, Gordon Becker. To sharpen his glovework, Marsh switched to the University club, where in 1966 he met Dennis Lillee while working as a trainee teacher; the pair would later be called partners-in-crime. Marsh made his first-class debut for Western Australia against the touring West Indies in 1968–69, again as a specialist batsman.

In that unusual match he scored a duck and then a blistering 104, taking on a bowling attack featuring Garfield Sobers, Charlie Griffith, and Wes Hall.

Test career

Marsh replaced the retired Becker from the 1969–70 season. At that time, Australia toured India and South Africa with Brian Taber and Ray Jordon as wicketkeepers, and a second team toured New Zealand with John MacLean. Marsh was behind these players in the pecking order but was controversially selected for the first Test of the 1970–71 Ashes series, replacing Taber for his batting. The media criticised his glovework early on, dubbing him "Iron Gloves" after he missed catches, though he took four catches in his first innings on debut.

In the Fifth Test he equalled the record for the highest Test innings by an Australian keeper, set by Don Tallon. Captain Bill Lawry declared with Marsh eight runs short of a century to gain an extra hour of bowling; Marsh said he had gained forty runs instead of missing eight, as he thought Lawry should have declared an hour earlier, and emphasised team priority over personal milestones. Marsh admitted he was underprepared as a wicketkeeper but learned from watching English counterpart Alan Knott; both conceded 44 byes in the series.

He became an integral part of the team during the 1972 tour of England. Marsh authored the Australian team victory song "Under the Southern Cross I Stand", co-opted from Henry Lawson's poem, and initially led the team in singing it, passing the role to Allan Border upon retirement. He started the victory celebration by narrating the song after Australia's win against England on 16 August 1972 at The Oval.

Style

Powerfully built and short in stature, Marsh was regarded as an all rounder for most of his career. Despite his bulk, which required him to work heavily on reducing weight early on, he had fast foot movement, anticipation and reflexes that allowed him to cover ground. He raised the wicketkeeper's role to greater prominence with acrobatic diving, raucous appeals and a habit of throwing the ball high into the air after a dismissal. He made himself the focal point in the field and tried to extract higher concentration from himself and teammates.

Speaking of his understanding with Lillee, Marsh said he most of the time knew what Lillee would do before he bowled, from the run-up, angle, speed, where he hit the crease and where the ball would go. At state level, Marsh was a noted captain, leading Western Australia to a Sheffield Shield and Gillette Cup double in 1976–77. He had nine wins and seven losses in 20 Shield matches as captain, and seven from nine limited overs matches. In ODIs, he contributed as a keeper and lower order batsman, using power and aggression in closing overs.

Against New Zealand in 1980–81 at the Adelaide Oval, he struck 26 from the final over against Lance Cairns, with three sixes and two fours, before falling on the final ball.

Coaching and other non-playing duties

Rod Marsh spent time as a commentator for Channel Nine’s international cricket coverage in two separate stints, from 1986 to 1990 and again from 1996 to 1998. He was involved with the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide from the very start, first as a coach and then as its director from 1990 until 2001, where he helped develop future Australian stars like Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie, and Brett Lee. From October 2001 to September 2005, Marsh ran the ECB national academy in England.

During that period, England transformed from a middling side into one that could compete with Australia, culminating in their Ashes victory in 2005 after a 16-year drought. He later publicly criticised the ECB for letting go of bowling coach Troy Cooley and questioned Duncan Fletcher’s decision to pick Geraint Jones as wicketkeeper over Chris Read. Marsh once stated his cricketing loyalty was with England and even served as a selector for the English team.

In August 2006, he took on a consultancy role for the South Australian Cricket Association to review the state’s cricket setup, and he also worked with the Global Cricket Academy in Dubai. In 2011, he joined the Cricket Australia national selection panel on a part-time basis and was tasked with coaching coaches to create a consistent mentoring approach across Australian states. He became chairman of selectors for Cricket Australia on 2 May 2014, succeeding John Inverarity.

During his tenure, he faced criticism from Michael Slater for leaving Usman Khawaja out of the playing XI, especially during the Chappell-Hadlee ODI series in New Zealand in February 2016. Marsh resigned from the chairman role on 16 November 2016, following a series loss to South Africa.