Malcolm Marshall: ‘You know, I wanna dish out pain’
I ONCE stood very close to the great West Indian cricketer Joel Garner as he was running into bowl at Lord’s. At six feet 8, and holding a rock hard ball high above his head, Garner was the most terrifying and fantastic sight I’d ever seen. Malcolm Marshall was shorter at 5ft 9. But he was faster and deadlier. In his series on the “XI most intimidating bowlers” Allan Donald looks at the fearsome West Indian star who died in 1999.
I walked out of the change room and I sat, because the pitch was nearer the Rea Bank Stand at Edgbaston, near the Colts ground, B field. So I walked right around and I sat in the stand there, and I just watched this guy run in all day.
He was not a tall man. He was skiddy. He had the knack, the skill, of swinging the ball both ways. He took 11 wickets in the game in three days. When I got to the crease eventually, there was a huddle, and I walked past and he said, “Were you the kid sitting in that stand earlier?” I didn’t wanna say anything. I don’t know what was coming.
And I was waiting for something quite harsh to come and he tapped me on the back of my head and he goes, “Good luck, son.”
It took him two balls – just two balls. Just lost my off stump and he swung it away like this.
He only demolished Donald’s stump. Be thankful.
He had this passion for knocking over batsmen. This passion for hurting batsmen and this passion for helping others, and that to me was priceless. I learnt so much. Andy Lloyd, who was my captain at Warwickshire, Malcolm ended his career in two balls. I saw the photo of Lloyd lying on the ground and holding his face. It was two balls in a Test and it was all over.
He had this thing about this pain factor that he always talked about. He found a lot of pleasure of really not only just intimidating them but he found a lot of pleasure in saying, “You know, I wanna dish out pain.”
I was there:
Posted: 23rd, June 2013 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
