Malcolm Marshall, a genius in action

I attended a function organised by the Brotherhood Society to present Wasim Bari with a gold medal for his services to cricket. Rich tributes were paid to him by distinguished speakers which included Lt- General Tauqir Zia, the chairman of the PCB and Mr I.A. Khan, a former president of the BCCP and who was manager of the Pakistan team that toured England in 1967 during which Wasim Bari made his test debut at Edgbaston. Bari was praised for being an outstanding cricketer and for being a principled and honest individual. It is the latter that stuck out given the present climate of distrust where many top cricketers are perceived to be crooks and their names are mentioned, with gay abandon as being involved in match-fixing. In India, some of the biggest names, past and present have incurred the wrath of taxauthorities who have raided their houses and seized 'incriminating' evidence in an attempt to establish a nexus between unaccounted wealth and match-fixing. There was a time when it was assumed automatically that cricketers were honest and upright gentlemen. Now we assume the contrary and make a special point of highlighting their integrity. We have turned the law on its head and begin with a presumption of guilt leaving it to the accused to prove his innocence. This column is not about match-fixing but about Malcolm Marshall, the West Indian fast bowler who died recently.

I cannot claim to have been his friend though I was an unashamed fan of his. We were on nodding-terms, exchanging formal greetings and a smile. I once gave him a lift from Faisalabad Airport where he had gone to receive his girl-friend who had arrived on the same flight as I had. We drove into town in near-silence. He struck me as being somewhat shy but there was nothing shy about his bowling for he was one of the greatest fast bowlers the game has known. He was not a tall man by West Indian standards but he ran in like a runaway train and had one of the quickest arm actions. I asked several Pakistan batsmen who was the fastest and the best bowler they had faced and they were unanimous that it was Malcolm Marshall. They said his bouncer was lethal, he used it sparingly and he got the ball to rear up from the good length spot and it spat at you like a striking cobra. He got considerable lateral movement and swung the new ball and learnt to reverse swing the old one. He was no mug with the bat either and qualified as an all-rounder.

I was moved to read about the match played at the Honourable Artillery Company ground in the City of London as a tribute to him. Some of the greatest names in cricket, past and present played in the match including Pakistan's Wasim Akram. Touching too was the appearance of Glen McGrath and Shane Warne. His former team-mates including Viv Richards, Michael Holding and Gordon Greenidge were there as was Mike Gatting whose nose Marshall had broken in a test match. It seemed a wonderful gathering, best summed up by Marshall's wife Connie: "It's a great day for a great man. It's a real sunny Malcolm Marshall day. It's a great honour to see how many wonderful cricketers have showed up."

To this let me add a more contemporary tribute, more appropriate to the times, there was not a trace of scandal associated with his name, not a breath of wrong-doing, be it chucking or ball-tampering or match-fixing.

Malcolm Marshall had left test cricket, prematurely one thought, a victim of ill-conceived house cleaning to build a new team by the West Indies with disastrous results. He had gone to South Africa but returned as the coach of the team. It was just before the start of the 1999 World Cup that he was taken ill and watched the World Cup from a hospital bed. It was then we learnt with considerable horror that he had cancer and that was a test match he could not win, as he had won several test matches for his beloved West Indies through his brilliant, and at times, devastating bowling, none more so than the test match he won against England, bowling with a broken left-arm which he would put in a sling after bowling his over.

Cricket needs to be remembered through players like him for it is through its Malcolm Marshalls that the game gets its dignity and not through those who have sullied the reputation of this great game or perceived to have done so. Marshall belonged in the best tradition of West Indian fast bowlers starting with Learie Constantine who was elevated to the peerage and who was a gentleman to his finger-tips and including Andy Roberts, Michael Holding down to the present, the indomitable pair of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose. The game is richer for players like these though their trade was to bowl the cricket ball at terrifying speeds and give batsmen nightmares. I hope his seven-year old son Mali will take up the game. I am sure that this would have been his father's prayer.

Whoever saw Malcom Marshall bowl was privileged to see genius in action and the final words must be those of the former Lancashire, Durham and England batsman Graeme Fowler: "It was good to play against someone who knew what he was doing. If you got runs against him then you knew you had played well." As good a tribute as any Better even than the bold young lady who appeared at the match, with spectacles and not much else. Marshall would have approved of both sentiments.