Malcolm MARSHALL

Although he was the shortest of the West Indian fast bowlers, Malcolm Marshall may well have been the greatest. He certainly took wickets more regularly than any of the great bowlers in the history of Test cricket. He took them in all sorts of conditions, even bowling with his left arm in plaster at Headingley in 1984, when he took 7-53. He came into the West Indies side under the captaincy of Alvin Kallicharan when most of the first-choice West Indians were in Australia with World Series Cricket. He advanced quickly enough to keep Colin Croft out of several Tests in 1980, taking 3-42 and scoring 45 at the Oval. His batting could have been much better had he not used so much energy bowling fast. In 1980-81 West Indies went to Pakistan without Roberts or Holding and Marshall took 4-25 in Faisalabad.

Playing against India at Port-of-Spain in 1982-83 he took 5-37. He really began to fire in 1983-84, when he scored 92 in Kanpur with 4-19 and 4-57 in the same match and 6-37 in Calcutta. He had five wickets in an innings three times against Australia and 24 wickets at an average of 21 in four Tests against England in 1984, some with that broken arm. He even batted with his arm in plaster to let Larry Gomes reach his century. Even Marshall, though, could not intimidate Sir Gary Sobers, even though the great man was by then in his fifties. They met up in club cricket, Marshall for Banks Brewery and Sobers for Barbados Police. Even buses stopped for the drivers to watch. The legendary all-rounder said, "Listen sonny, I'm getting on in age. Why not save those fast balls for someone else?" "He got a little bit upset so I had to show him who was boss!" (Bob Harragan).

The more mature Marshall would have felt no pressure to prove himself against Gary Sobers and by then he knew enough about pitching the ball up rather than bombard the older man with bouncers. He was still a fast bowler in the most devastating part of his career, but he was a fast bowler who bent the ball away from the batsman at unplayable angles. In England in 1988 he was able to take wickets almost at will: batting looked an impossibility. That year he took 35 Test wickets at an incredible average of 12.65.

He became the first West Indian to pass 350 Test wickets. In that haul were 5-69 and 5-38 in the Brisbane Test of 1984-85. At Bridgetown in 1985 he took 7-80 and also scored 63 against New Zealand. There were 27 wickets in five Tests when England visited the Caribbean in 1985-86, and 5-33 in the arid conditions of Lahore in 1986-87. At Port of Spain against India in 1989 he took 5-34 and 6-55, with 5-60 in Bridgetown. He had 21 more wickets in England in 1991, although by then his powers were beginning to wane and he was usually bowling first change. His last hurrah was the World Cup in Australasia in 1992, when his best performance was his 2-26 against South Africa. His absence from the first Test between West Indies and South Africa that followed was much to do with the spectators boycott that followed, the match being played in Barbados before nearly empty stands. (Bob Harragan)

                                            His life after retiring from playing.

In 1996, Marshall became coach both of Hampshire and the West Indies, although the latter's steadily declining standards during this period brought criticism his way.  In 1999, during the World Cup it was revealed that Marshall had colon cancer. He immediately left his coaching job to begin treatment, but this was ultimately unsuccessful. He married his long-term partner, Connie Roberta Earle, in Romsey on 25 September 1999, and returned to his home town, where he died on 4 November aged forty-one, weighing little more than 25 kg.

"The worldwide outpouring of grief," wrote journalist-friend Pat Symes, "was testimony to the genuine love and admiration he engendered." At the funeral service at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium in Wildey, Barbados, former West Indian fast bowler Rev. Wes Hall siffilated the last rites in the belief that Marshall, having found God again in the last few weeks of his life, was off to Heaven. His coffin was carried at the service by five West Indian captains. He was buried at St Bartholomew's Church, Barbados.

The Malcolm Marshall Memorial Trophy was inaugurated in his memory, to be awarded to the leading wicket-taker in each England v West Indies Test series. Another trophy with the same name was set up to be the prize in an annual game between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

Malcolm Marshall Memorial cricket games are also played in Handsworth Park, Birmingham. On the Sunday of the UK's August bank holiday, invitation XIs play against an individual's "select eleven".

The entrance road to Hampshire's ground the Rose Bowl is called Marshall Drive in memory of Marshall and another West Indian Hampshire great Roy Marshall.

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; from wikipedia.