13 Facts about Geoff Marsh - Australia’s Gutsy Opener

Geoff Marsh was a steady, solid right-handed opening batsman and a fine fielder. Marsh established himself as a consistent run-scorer in domestic cricket and was on the fringes of the national team for a number of years before winning selection in the Australian Test team. Soon after his debut in 1985, he made the opening position his own, batting alongside the likes of Mark Taylor and David Boon he became an integral part of the Australian ODI side as well.

1. Birth:

Geoff Marsh was born on 31st December 1958 in Northam, WA, Australia.

2. Nicknames:

Marsh’s nickname was ‘Swampy’ hence, his elder son Shaun got the nickname ‘SOS’ (Son of Swampy).

3. Sporting family:

The Marshes are a sporting family as apart from Geoff, his eldest son Shaun and youngest son Mitchell are both Test players for Australia, while his middle child, Melissa, was a Women’s National Basketball League player till the 2013-14 season. Geoff, Shaun, and Mitchell are only the third father-son trio to play Test cricket, the others being Walter, Richard, and Dayle Hadlee, and Lala, Surinder, and Mohinder Amarnath.

4. Farm life:

He was born on a farm and spent much of his early cricketing days practicing in the countryside. He related how he owes his powers of concentration to — of all things — lambs! “My wife Michelle had 21 pet lambs. She used to get a bucket of milk for them and when you let the lambs out of their pen, they would go berserk. We deliberately put the milk drum right behind the practice wicket and let the lambs out. They would be screaming and baaing and I would pretend it was Bay 13 and would be letting balls go as the lambs were going off,” Marsh said in an interview.

5. Respect for Bob Simpson:

He was very close to former Australian coach Bob Simpson, whom he rated as the best coach he ever played under. Marsh spoke about Simpson in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, “He was the best cricket coach who has ever been in my view. He taught more cricketers how to play than anyone I know.”

6. World Cup winner, twice:

He is the only man in the history of the game to win the cricket World Cup in dual roles. He was a member of Australia’s victorious 1987 World Cup winning squad and was later the coach when Australia won in 1999.

7. Shadow practice:

He and David Boon were opening partners for years, and also shared rooms when on tour. Boon related the story of how he once got up and saw Marsh shadow-practicing his technique being ‘Full Monty’! In an interview, Marsh once said, “I was naked but I had my baggy green on, which was something…It is just what you do; you get up in the morning and you grab a bat and look at yourself in the mirror. It just so happened that I did not have anything on.”

8. Disagreement over a novel:

Boon and Marsh had a unique comradeship Marsh disliked Boon’s habit of reading books, so much so that he once shredded the novel Boon was reading! It did not sour their relationship though as the pair remain good friends even now.

9. A record shared with Mark Taylor:

Marsh and Taylor entered the record books when they became the first pair to bat for an entire day in England. The duo put on 301 runs on the opening day of the 5^th Test at Trent Bridge in 1989. Their partnership was finally broken on the second day, with Marsh being dismissed for 138. Taylor went on to score 219 as Australia piled on 602/6. Australia won the match by an innings and 180 runs.

10. Solitary over:

Marsh bowled a single over in an international career spanning 167 matches across seven years. He bowled against India at Sydney in what was his fourth ODI.

11. ODI stats:

He played 117 ODIs scoring 4357 runs at an average of 39.98 including 9 tons and 22 fifties. His career best was an unbeaten 126 against New Zealand in Chandigarh during the 1987 World Cup.

12. Test stats:

He played 50 Tests scoring 2854 runs at an average of 33.18 including 4 tons and 15 fifties. His career best was the 138 he scored in Nottingham in 1989.

13. Coaching career:

Marsh retired from cricket as a player in 1994 before taking up coaching. In July 1996 he was chosen as coach of the Australian national Test and ODI teams. He left the Australian coaching job and soon became a selector for the Australian Cricket Board (now Cricket Australia), although he left this position in 2001 to become coach of the Zimbabwean national team. Marsh continued in this position until 2004 when his contract expired. He was appointed as the head coach for the team Pune Warriors India which made its IPL debut in 2011.

In September 2011, he was appointed as the head coach of the Sri Lanka national team however, his tenure lasted barely 4 months. After Sri Lanka lost the Test and ODI series on their tour of South Africa in December 2011 and January 2012, he was sacked and replaced by Graham Ford.