The Hindu : Can England take the cue from Rodney Marsh?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 12, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Can England take the cue from Rodney Marsh?

By K.C. Vijaya Kumar

Rodney Marsh still hasn't stopped diving. Here, the England `A' coach is playing rugby with Simon Jones (right) and Mathew Prior. — Photo: V. Ganesan

BANGALORE, FEB. 11. Winning matters and it is a philosophy entrenched in Rodney Marsh's memory. "Everyone knows the number one. If you are the second best, you may well be the tenth placed team too. All that matters is being the best," Marsh said. The Aussie wicket-keeping legend and acclaimed coach is now keen to instil this culture of winning in his traditional rival - England!

Marsh, a hero of many Ashes battles along with Dennis Lillee, is now a professional lending his expertise to erstwhile rivals.

Marsh dons twin roles - Cricket Academy Director and National selector - in the England and Wales Cricket Board hierarchy. And his stated goal is to help England emerge as the best team in the world.

It is an aim that has its frustrating moments as he accompanies the England `A' squad in its latest tour of India. His wards have failed twice in the practice games against the Karnataka State Cricket Association XI and also lost to India `A' in the first two one-dayers.

Marsh spoke to The Hindu before leaving for Chennai for the third and final one-dayer there on Thursday. "I would say we only lost two matches because the earlier games (against KSCA XI) were just warm-up matches. We could have won both our games (against India `A') but we lost. It was terrible but as long as the players learn something, we should do well," he said.

Spotting and grooming talent has been his hobby ever since he bowed out of Test cricket in 1984 with a then record tally of 343 catches and 12 stumpings. He was head coach with the Commonwealth Bank Australian Cricket Academy and a consultant with the National Cricket Academy here during its early days. At the England Cricket Academy, Marsh believes he has a good crop of emerging fast bowlers though other areas need to be enhanced.

"We have a set of fast bowlers coming through like Simon Jones and Sajid Mahmood. Jones and Mahmood did well here yesterday considering that they are bowling on wickets where the ball doesn't bounce but we need more spinners. But I guess all countries need their share of spinners, don't they?" he asked.

England's trudge back to the top has been pockmarked with losses. A recent stumble in Sri Lanka rankles but Marsh believed that the only way out is to start winning. "We start this summer in the West Indies, we should win there and then we should beat Australia and all other teams on the way if we want to be the top team and for that we need to change the cricketing culture. We need to have a winning culture," he said.

The recent 1-1 Test series draw between India and Australia hardly surprised Marsh. "Look we are talking about missing bowlers (Glen McGrath and Shane Warne) with 900 Test wickets between them, it is bound to affect the fortunes," he said.

The stockily built Western Australian may have let a thin film of dust, coat his weather-beaten gloves of many a cricketing battle but the fire within cannot be stopped. "I wake up every day and give my best," he said. Hopefully the English cricketers will take his cue.

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