Sports
Former Australia wicketkeeper Rod Marsh passes away
Former Australia wicketkeeper Rod Marsh passed away, aged 74, following a heart attack last week in Queensland.
Amongst Test cricket’s finest wicketkeepers, and an explosive left-handed batters, Marsh played 96 Tests for Australia between 1970 and 1984, scoring 3633 runs including three hundreds. At the time of his retirement, Marsh held the world record for most number of Test dismissals – 355. Marsh also featured in 92 ODIs, making 1225 runs at 20.08 with 124 dismissals
At the domestic level, Marsh made his debut for Western Australia in the 1968-69 season and went on to play 257 first-class matches, scoring 11,067 runs at 31.17 and completing 869 dismissals.
Known for his athletic keeping, Marsh’s partnership with legendary fast bowler Dennis Lillee is the most successful bowler-wicketkeeper union in Test history, with ‘caught Marsh, bowled Lillee’ recorded 95 times – a record till date.
Having turned a selector after retirement, Marsh went on to head up Australia’s selection panel between 2014 and 2016.
Marsh is a member of the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, Sport Australia’s Hall of Fame and the ICC Hall of Fame and he also received the Order of the British Empire in 1981 for his services to sport.
He is survived by his wife Ros and children Paul, Dan and Jamie.
“This is a tremendously sad day for Australian cricket and for all those who loved and admired Rod Marsh,” said Cricket Australia chairman Dr Lachlan Henderson. “Rod will be forever remembered for the way he played the game and the pleasure he brought crowds as a member of some great Australian teams. ‘Caught Marsh, bowled Lillee’ has iconic status in our game.
“Rod also made an enormous contribution to the game by identifying, coaching and mentoring many future stars in his various roles as coach and director at cricket academies in Australia and other cricket playing nations.
“Our thoughts are with Rod’s wife Ros, his sons Paul, Dan and Jamie and the extended Marsh family, his many friends and teammates with whom he created so many special memories,” added Henderson.
“Rod was a colossal figure in Australian cricket who gave close to 50 years of incredible service to Australian cricket, from his debut in the Ashes series of 1970/71, through to his time as National Selector, when many of the current group of Australian men’s players came into close contact with him,” said current Australia Test captain Pat Cummins.
“He was brilliant to deal with because he knew the game inside-out, but also had a way of dealing with you to put you at your ease.
“I, along with countless other people in Australia, grew up hearing the stories of him as a fearless and tough cricketer, but his swashbuckling batting and his brilliance behind the stumps over more than a decade made him one of the all-time greats of our sport, not just in Australia, but globally.
“When I think of Rod I think of a generous and larger-than-life character who always had a life-loving, positive and relaxed outlook, and his passing leaves a massive void in the Australian cricket community.
“My thoughts, and the thoughts of the entire tour party here in Pakistan, are with Rod’s wife Ros and their family at this terrible time.”
It is understood the ICC has told the BCB to inform the Bangladesh government that if Bangladesh continues to refuse to travel to India to play its matches in the 2026 T20 World Cup, then they will be replaced by another team at the tournament. That decision was followed by a vote, where the majority of the ICC Board was in favour of having a replacement.
BCB have been given one more day to come back to the ICC on its stance on playing in India.
If that is the case, then Scotland is likely to replace Bangladesh in Group C at the World Cup. Scotland had failed to qualify for the 2026 T20 World Cup, having finished behind Netherlands, Italy and Jersey at the European Qualifier.
[Cricinfo]
Harry Brook admits he was fortunate to keep his job as white-ball captain following a latte night alteraction with a nightclub bouncer in New Zealand, and says he is in the process of regaining the trust of his team.
Brook, now in Sri Lanka for England’s ODI series which gets underway on Thursday, was speaking for the first time since news broke that he had been disciplined for the incident in Wellington in October, for which he was fined £30,000 and put on a final warning for his off-field conduct.
“Obviously I made a terrible mistake,” Brook said. “Not only as a player, but as a captain. It’s very unprofessional and I should be leading from the front. “I’ve learnt from my mistakes, I’ve reflected a lot on what’s happened and I know it wasn’t the right thing to do. I want to say sorry to my team-mates, to all the fans that travel far and wide to watch, spend a lot of money on coming out to watch us play cricket and supporting us, and to the ECB for putting them in a tricky situation, and it’ll never happen again. I’m extremely sorry.”
Brook, along with a number of other England players, had been out drinking the night before the third ODI against New Zealand, with the match the final competitive fixture for England before the Ashes began three weeks later.
Brook, who says he then went on his own to a nightclub, says he was “clocked” by a bouncer when attempting to get in.
“We went out for a couple of drinks beforehand and then I took it upon myself to go out for a few more and I was on my own there,” Brook said. “I was trying to get into a club and the bouncer just clocked me, unfortunately. Like I said, I shouldn’t have been in that situation from the start. I wasn’t absolutely leathered, I’d had one too many drinks.”
Brook reported his actions to the management mid-game the next day, and came close to being sacked from his position as captain as a result.
“It was definitely going through my mind,” Brook said of the potential that he would lose his job, before adding that he had not at any stage considered resigning. “Never came into my mind. I left that decision to the hierarchy and, look, if they’d have sacked me from being captain, then I’d have been perfectly fine with it, as long as I was still playing cricket for England.
“Probably, yeah,” he added, when asked if he felt lucky to keep his job. “I think I’ve got a little bit of work to do to try and regain the trust of the players. I said sorry to them yesterday. I felt like I needed to say sorry for my actions. It’s not acceptable as a player, but as a captain it’s really not acceptable to do what I did in New Zealand. I’ll be the first person to say that. I hold my hands up.”
In the aftermath of the incident, which was kept private by England until after the Ashes had concluded, Brook sought help from Test captain Ben Stokes, who himself was involved in a high-profile nightclub fight in 2018.
“He obviously wasn’t best pleased at what I’d done,” Brook said. “But he tried to help me through it and he knows exactly what it feels like to be in this situation. We had a few conversations, but we quickly moved on.”
The news broke amid allegations of a drinking culture in English cricket, after players were regularly seen drinking alcohol during England’s tour of Australia.
“No, there’s no drinking culture at all,” Brook said. “Like I said, everybody has the ability to say no. If you want a drink, if you don’t want a drink, you’re allowed to make that decision yourself.
“It wasn’t just drinking [in Australia]. We weren’t just going out and getting leathered every day. We were having a few drinks here and there. We were playing plenty of golf, going to nice cafes, having coffees but we had a few drinks here and there. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s just what human beings do.”
Despite this, England have introduced a curfew for their tour of Sri Lanka, with playing staff not allowed out past midnight.
“That’s been made as a group decision,” Brook said. “We think that it’s the best thing going forward, for the time being, to be able to put us in situations where we can win games of cricket and perform to the best of our ability.”
England play three ODIs against Sri Lanka, starting on Thursday in Colombo, before playing three T20Is ahead of next month’s World Cup. England have struggled of late in the 50-over format, losing 11 of their past 15 matches. That poor run of form will add extra pressure to the position of head coach Brendon McCullum, whom Brook threw his support behind, calling him “the best head coach I’ve had by a million miles”.
England have made a number of changes to their team since their last outing against New Zealand three months ago, with the return of Zak Crawley to the top of the order the most noticeable change. Crawley replaces Jamie Smith as opener, and will play his first List A game in over two years, having last played for England in December 2023. Elsewhere, Liam Dawson has been selected as the second spinner to accompany Adil Rashid in the middle-overs.
England : Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (capt), Jos Buttler (wk), Will Jacks, Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid
[Cricinfo]
Charith Asalanka (Captain), Pathum Nissanka, Kamil Mishara, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Pavan Rathnayake, Dhananjaya de Silva, Janith Liyanage, Kamindu Mendis, Dunith Wellalage, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jeffrey Vandersay, Maheesh Theekshana, Milan Rathnayake, Asitha Fernando, Pramod Madushan, Eshan Malinga.
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