Original Spin by Vic Marks

Author:Vic Marks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin

That atmosphere still prevailed in 1986/7 and has stayed with me. Even on the last Ashes tour in 2017/18 I found myself taking umbrage when I heard one of the Australian correspondents – from sophisticated Melbourne – complaining at the end of the day’s play at the WACA that ‘the one taxi in Perth had already been taken’. How dare he patronize the West Aussies like that? To a lesser extent it sometimes felt like that at Somerset as well. We could be easily riled by those metropolitan elitist bastards inside the M25 – except that there wasn’t an M25 then.

So we left contentedly. I was so grateful to Anna, who had cajoled me into going in the first place and I was in proud possession of a bushman’s hat that I still have, which was a gift from the team. Any suggestion that I might go back for a second season was scuppered since it soon became evident that Anna was going to give birth to Rosie the following November. In any case it was a cunning plan not to return. My stock in WA was really quite high when I left in 1987; it might have been a struggle to keep it there after another season. And WA won the Shield in the next two seasons anyway. The following year they defeated Queensland, who had their own Englishman in the side, at the WACA. I must show Ian Botham my Sheffield Shield winner’s medal sometime.

Rod Marsh was also pleased at the way everything had panned out since he had stuck his neck out to sign me up in the first place. I had played well in an alien environment and won the respect of new teammates. By the same token I felt indebted to Rod since that season in WA was as fulfilling as any I experienced.

Please do not fall for the stereotype of Rod Marsh. He may seem the epitome of the rough, tough, beer-swilling Aussie, who formed a formidable triumvirate with Ian Chappell and Dennis Lillee in the good old bad old days. Well, he did like a beer and he was tough all right but that is only a fraction of the story.

Take Mike Brearley’s word for this as well. Writing back in 1985 in The Art of Captaincy, he was keen to set the record straight about Marsh. ‘For behind the abrasive front was a thoughtful, astute and humorous man, whose players when he led WA, were totally committed to him. The Australian Cricket Board, however, were not, but their prejudice was not based on technical consideration, such as having a wicketkeeper captain. For them he was tarred with the same brush as Ian Chappell, the brush of revolution and extremism. Greg Chappell with his dignified air they could stomach as captain, but they refused to swallow Marsh; this was a major mistake.’

Marsh played the game properly. Witness his recall of Derek Randall at a critical moment in the Centenary Test of 1977. Marsh

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