© Connect.in.Com
Full name Malcolm Denzil Marshall
Born April 18, 1958, Bridgetown, Barbados
Died November 4, 1999, Bridgetown, Barbados (aged 41 years 200 days)
Major teams West Indies, Barbados, Hampshire, Natal
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast
In a nutshell Malcolm Marshall was perhaps the finest of West Indies' many formidable fast bowlers of the 1980s, endowed with fierce pace, swing, cut, a vicious bouncer, and above all, the ability to outthink any batsman.
Malcolm Marshall in action....
© Getty Images
profile
Malcolm Denzil Marshall was a West Indian cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, Marshall is regarded as one of the finest and fastest pacemen ever to have played Test cricket.His Test bowling average of 20.94 is the best of anyone who has taken 200 or more wickets.He achieved his bowling success despite being, by the standards of other fast bowlers, a short man – he stood at 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m),while most of the great quicks have been well above 6 feet (1.8 m) and many great West Indian fast bowlers, such as Joel Garner, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, were 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) or above. He generated fearsome pace from his bowling action, with a dangerous bouncer. Marshall was also a very dangerous lower-order batsman with ten Test fifties and seven first-class centuries.
Malcolm Marshall in action.
© Getty Images
Marshall was born in Bridgetown, Barbados. His father, Denzil Marshall, was a policeman, but died in a road traffic accident when Marshall was one year old. His mother, Eleanor (née Welch) remarried and Marshall had one half-brother and one half-sister. He grew up in the parish of Saint Michael, Barbados and was educated at St Giles Boys' School from 1963 to 1969 and then at Parkinson Comprehensive from 1969 to 1973.He was partly taught cricket by his grandfather, who helped to bring him up after his father's death. He played cricket for the Banks Brewery team from 1976. His first representative match was a 40-over affair for West Indies Young Cricketers against their English equivalents at Pointe-à-Pierre, Trinidad and Tobago in August 1976. He made nought and his eight overs disappeared for 53 runs.
Malcolm Marshall celebrates a wicket...
© PA Photos
Marshall's first senior appearance was a Geddes Grant/Harrison Line Trophy (List A) match for Barbados on 13 February 1978; again he made a duck and did not take a wicket. Four days later, he made his first-class debut against Jamaica, and whilst he failed to score runs he claimed 6-77 in the Jamaican first innings. On the back of this single first-class appearance he was selected to tour India in 1978/79, many first-choice West Indian stars being unavailable having committed themselves to playing World Series Cricket. Marshall heard of his selection on the radio while working in the storeroom at Banks Brewery, and later claimed he did not know where India was.
Marshall made his Test début in the Second Test at Bangalore on 15 December 1978. He immediately developed a career-long antipathy to Dilip Vengsarkar due to his agressive appealing. Despite doing little of note in the three Tests he played on that tour, he did take 37 wickets in all first-class games, and Hampshire saw enough in him to take him on as their overseas player for 1979, remaining with the county until 1993. He was in West Indies' World Cup squad, but did not play a match in the tournament. Hampshire were not doing well at the time,[citation needed] but nevertheless he took 47 first-class wickets, as well as picking up 5-13 against Glamorgan in the John Player League.
Marshall came to prominence in 1980, when in the third Test at Old Trafford he accounted for Mike Gatting, Brian Rose and Peter Willey in short order to spark an England collapse, although the match was eventually drawn despite Marshall taking 7-24. After 1980/81 he was out of the Test side for two years, but an excellent 1982 season when he took 134 wickets at under 16 apiece, including a career-best 8-71 against Worcestershire, saw him recalled and thereafter he remained a fixture until the end of his international career.
In seven successive Test series from 1982/83 to 1985/86 he took 21 or more wickets each time, in the last five of them averaging under 20. His most productive series in this period was the 1983/84 rubber against India, when he claimed 33 wickets as well as averaging 34 with the bat and making his highest Test score of 92 at Kanpur. A few months later he took five in an innings twice at home against Australia. At the peak of his career, he turned down an offer of US£1 million to join a rebel West Indies team on a tour to South Africa, still suffering international sporting isolation due to apartheid.
I had my first encounter with Malcolm at the beginning of my first-class career in 1988 when Trinidad and Tobago was playing against Barbados. The first delivery I faced in the match was from Malcolm and of course his reputation with the ball preceded him. I was scared, my heart was pumping and I was out caught down the leg-side first ball. As he went past me with his hands in the air he stopped and touched me on the shoulder and said 'Tough luck!' That was the first time I had got close to him.Brian Lara describing the first time he faced Marshall.
Malcolm Marshall and Azhar Zaidi.
© Zaidi Sports
By 1984 Marshall was seen as one of the finest bowlers in the world, and he demoralised England that summer, especially at Headingley, where he ran through the order in the second innings to finish with 7-53, despite having broken his thumb whilst fielding in the first innings. He also came out to bat at number 11 in West Indies' first innings despite his injury, allowing his team to gain a further psychological advantage as Larry Gomes completed an unbeaten century (Marshall batted one-handed that day, with one arm in plaster).In that series, too, he also ended Andy Lloyd's Test career after just half an hour after hitting him on the head. West Indies won the "blackwash" series 5-0.
© Getty image
In 1984/85 he had another successful series at home against New Zealand, although there were calls for the his bouncers to be ruled as intimidatory beyond what was acceptable, and that Marshall should have been admonished by the umpires. A rising delivery broke the nose of Mike Gatting, England's captain, in a one-day match in February 1986; Marshall later found bone fragments embedded in the leather of the ball. As well as the bouncer, however, Marshall succeeded in swinging the ball in both direction. He also used an in-swinging yorker as well as developing an effective leg-cutter, and with the exception of the 1986/87 New Zealanders, against whom he could only manage nine wickets at 32.11, no side seemed to have an answer to him.
1988 saw his career-best Test performance of 7-22 at Old Trafford, and he ended the series with 35 wickets in five Tests, at 12.65. Marshall was coming towards the end of his international career, moreover, and though he took 11 wickets in the match against India at Port of Spain the following winter, he played his last Test at The Oval in 1991. His final Test wicket – his 376th – was that of Graham Gooch.
Marshall's final appearances for West Indies came in One Day International cricket.the 1992 World Cup. However, in his five matches in the tournament, he took just two wickets, both in the penultimate game against South Africa at Christchurch. This was the only time Marshall played for West Indies against South Africa in his career, though he played provincial cricket for Natal in both 1992/93 and 1993/94. Whilst playing at Natal, his experience was invaluable, and his guidance was an influential spark in the early career of Shaun Pollock. Today, Shaun Pollock attributes much of his success to his mentor, Marshall.
Ian Botham is caught behind off Malcolm Marshall...
© Getty Images
He was in the Hampshire team that won the 1992 Benson & Hedges Cup. He played for Hampshire again in 1993, taking 28 wickets at a shade over 30 runs apiece, but that was to be the end of his time in county cricket, and in 1994 his only game in England was against the South Africans for the Scarborough President's XI during the Festival. He played five matches for Scotland in the 1995 Benson and Hedges Cup without much success, and his last senior games were for Natal in 1995/96. In his very last senior appearance, against Western Province in a limited-overs game at Cape Town, the first of his two victims was his former international team-mate Desmond Haynes. He took over 1,000 wickets for Hampshire, and received more than £60,000 (tax free) in his benefit year in 1987.
Sunday League winners 1986,
© Hampshire County Cricket Club
In 1996, Marshall became coach both of Hampshire and the West Indies, although the latter's steadily declining standards during this period brought a considerable amount of criticism his way.[citation needed] In 1999, during the World Cup it was revealed that Marshall had colon cancer. He immediately left his coaching job to begin treatment, but this was ultimately unsuccessful. He married his long-term partner, Connie Roberta Earle, in Romsey on 25 September 1999, and returned to his home town, where he died on 4 November aged forty-one, weighing little more than 25 kg.
"The worldwide outpouring of grief," wrote journalist-friend Pat Symes, "was testimony to the genuine love and admiration he engendered."At the funeral service at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium in Wildey, Barbados, former West Indian fast bowler Rev. Wes Hall siffilated the last rites in the belief that Marshall, having found God again in the last few weeks of his life, was off to Heaven.His coffin was carried at the service by five West Indian captains. He was buried at St Bartholomew's Church, Barbados.
The Malcolm Marshall Memorial Trophy was inaugurated in his memory, to be awarded to the leading wicket-taker in each England v West Indies Test series. Another trophy with the same name was set up to be the prize in an annual game between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.Malcolm Marshall Memorial cricket games are also played in Handsworth Park, Birmingham. On the Sunday of the UK's August bank holiday, invitation XI's play against an individual's "select eleven".The entrance road to Hampshire's ground the Rose Bowl is called Marshall Drive in memory of Marshall and another West Indian Hampshire great Roy Marshall
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The epitome of fast bowling
Swing and cut, speed and bounce, and smarts above all - Maco had everything except height, and even that lack he turned into an asset
Mike Selvey
(from bottom) Richard Hadlee, Clive Rice,
Kapil Dev, Ian Botham and Marshall.
© PA Photos
They laid Malcolm Marshall to rest in the churchyard of St Bartholomew, out near Grantley Adams airport, the gateway to Barbados. His funeral service, at the Garry Sobers Gymnasium, had been conducted by the Reverend Wes Hall: one giant of West Indies cricket helping another on his way. It had been a state occasion in all but name, broadcast not just in Barbados but across the Caribbean. But the rest of the cricket world grieved too. Those who knew him and played with and against him, of course, but also those who revered and recognised the untimely passing of a great player. Such was the esteem in which Marshall had been held.
Can it really be 11 years ago this November that the colon cancer that ravaged him for six months finally took him? He was only 41 years old, his prime long since past, but still good enough to make good young players acting above their station look foolish when he chose to turn his arm over in the nets. Perhaps, just as Don McLean recognised the death of Buddy Holly as the "day the music died", November 4, 1999 was the day West Indies cricket, no longer top dog, began its final descent from such sustained dominance as no side had ever managed before, into turmoil and obscurity. In life, Viv Richards and he, above all, represented the central pillars of supreme excellence within the West Indies side. In his passing, he became a metaphor for the demise of cricket in the Caribbean.
Marshall was central to the West Indies side through their most dominant period in the mid-80s, when happenstance not heritage, history now tells us, produced such a rich crop of fast-bowling talent, the like of which had never been seen before or since, and they brushed aside opposition as if flicking away irritant horseflies. Traditionally fast bowlers have been seen to hunt in pairs, their names synonymous with one another: Gregory and McDonald, Constantine and Martindale, Lindwall and Miller, Trueman and Statham, Hall and Griffith, Lillee and Thomson, Wasim and Waqar, McGrath and Gillespie, Donald and Pollock. But in that glorious period, West Indies hunted in packs: Roberts, Holding, Garner, Croft, Patterson, Daniel, Clarke, Bishop, Walsh, and Ambrose.
Malcolm Marshall fells Andy Lloyd..
© Getty Images
And, of course, there, as the linchpin, was Marshall. For a period of three years, from 1982-83 to 1985-86, he was irresistible, the best, taking 21 or more wickets in seven successive series, with an average in the last five of less than 20. In India in 1983-84, he took 33 wickets, a staggering achievement, including one of Test history's seminal new-ball spells on the disheartening track in Kanpur, where he claimed Sunil Gavaskar, Jimmy Amarnath (for ducks), Anshuman Gaekwad (4), and his arch-enemy Dilip Vengsarkar (14), to get figures of 8-5-9-4.
Yet it was England, his second home, that suffered most, it seemed. At Headingley in 1984, he broke his left thumb while fielding earlier in the match. But with his hand in plaster, and in considerable pain, he bowled 26 overs in the second innings to take 7 for 53 and win the game. Four years on, at Old Trafford, with the England team in a maelstrom of unrest, he showed versatility on a pitch deliberately prepared to negate pace and give excessive help to spin, by simply pitching the ball up and swinging it, taking 7 for 22 as England were humiliated for 93. "Don't ever try that on us again," said Richards in the aftermath.
He was open-chested at delivery, against the teaching of the manuals, but in such a neutral position that he didn't need telegraph, through a change in action, any intention to swing the ball one way or another. And his arm was wickedly fast - twitch fast, as could be said, for example, of the golf swing of Tiger Woods
Perhaps most telling, though, is the fact that in such stellar fast-bowling company, where duty and the spoils were shared, he took five wickets in an innings 22 times and four times claimed 10 in a match. For the bulk of his career, he averaged five per match.
© Getty Images
He could outshine anyone. In 1987, as part of their bicentenary celebrations, the MCC staged a match at Lord's against a Rest of the World side. The assemblage of fast bowling was magnificent: on the MCC side came Marshall, Richard Hadlee and Clive Rice; on the other team were Imran Khan, Courtney Walsh and Kapil Dev. This was to be an exhibition of batting, however, on a pitch designed for runs and the emasculation of pace. Only Marshall rose above the conditions. Gavaskar was palpably lbw to the first ball of the game from Marshall, but was allowed to stay and went on to make 188 (revenge came second time around, when Marshall did away with the need for the umpire's help and castled him for nought), but he reserved his greatest effort for Dilip Vengsarkar. The antipathy went back to Marshall's first Test tour to India in 1978, when he believed Vengsarkar claimed an unfair catch. Marshall - what a name for the purpose - got his man, going round the wicket, extracting pace where none ought to have existed, and with no way out of the road bombarded his man brutally into submission. And yes, when unrestrained by strong umpiring, he could be brutal.
Marshall's supreme excellence created debate that, from the rum shops of Oistins to the clubs and bars around the world, continues to this day. Who has been the fastest? Who is considered the best? Was it Ray Lindwall, the supreme craftsman, with complete control of swing, yorker and bouncer, or his compatriot Dennis Lillee, bristling and explosive, with a command of cut like no other of his pace before? Could it be the aristocratically haughty Imran Khan or Wasim Akram - both magicians of reverse-swing - or the deadly Waqar Younis, whose strike rate in his pomp was second to none? What about Curtly Ambrose, portrayed in calypso as The Master, the professor Andy Roberts, the inquisitor Glenn McGrath, or the surgeon that was Hadlee? Will the rampant South African, Dale Steyn, one day be so regarded?
Always the argument seems to come back to Marshall. There was nothing he seemed to lack, except perhaps height. But at 5ft 9in or so, around the same as Harold Larwood, he managed to turn that to his advantage, skidding the ball on where others might stick the ball in the pitch. He offered swing and cut, searing pace, a bouncer that seemed to climb to chin height rapidly and then level off, coming skimmingly flat; a supreme cricketing intellect that could spot flaws in an instant and smell fear, and a ruthless streak that made no concession in the pursuit of success for his team or, as in the case of Vengsarkar, occasionally of a personal vendetta.
Malcolm Marshall takes the wicket of Imran Khan,
World Cup 1983 semi-final © Getty Images
We can start with his action. In his younger days he ran a distance, the vogue thing that had little to do with rhythm and everything to do with menace. He came in on the angle, slithering to the crease, his twinkling feet encased not in heavy bowling boots but little more than carpet slippers. Later in his career he recognised that his speed did not depend on the length of the run, but that stamina did, and he cut it down. He was open-chested at delivery, against the teaching of the manuals, but in such a neutral position that he didn't need to telegraph, through a change in action, any intention to swing the ball one way or another. And his arm was wickedly fast - twitch fast, as could be said, for example, of the golf swing of Tiger Woods.
Next came the tools of the trade. He swung the ball - manipulated it with hand and wrist rather than relying on a body action to do the job as many so-called swing bowlers do - outswing and inswing at will, the latter being the pace bowler's googly. He was all but impossible to read, though, for his grip remained essentially the same for both, the change coming only in a movement of the supporting thumb. Of his bouncer, we have already spoken, a potent weapon, occasionally used to excess when allowed, occasionally, for no apparent reason, against lesser batsmen, who were left bemused, not to say bruised, by the assault.
© Getty Images
From Dennis Lillee he learned the legcutter, which he employed on dusty wickets. Against England in Gwalior, in the Nehru Cup of 1989, he produced a first ball of such startling pace to Allan Lamb - a rare England thorn in West Indian flesh during his career - that it pitched around middle stump, squaring the batsman, before jagging away and plucking out off stump. In its way it was as devastating a delivery as can ever have been bowled. He could assess the pace and productivity of a pitch, could adjust accordingly, and possessed the gift of analysis allied to instinct, which could undermine any batsman. Finally came resilience, stamina and courage.
Almost invariably the debate returns to the two figures: Lillee, the prototype modern fast bowler, and Marshall. Most would admit little more than a coat of varnish between the pair. None would quibble if the other got the nod. But Lillee had no record on the heartbreaking pitches of the subcontinent, in the days before reverse-swing made their abrasiveness into a virtue, not playing a single Test in India, and managing only three wickets in as many Tests on desperate surfaces in Pakistan in 1979-80. Marshall succeeded in Pakistan and in India. Both were complete fast bowlers. When they buried Marshall though, they interred the epitome of sustained fast-bowling excellence. He really was the best of the very best.
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First among equals
In a team of several fast-bowling stars, Malcolm Marshall stood out for his sheer versatility and genius
S Rajesh
There have been several bright stars in the fast-bowling pantheon - and indeed, many from the West Indies - but the luminosity of Malcolm Marshall stands out even in such exalted company. He was relatively short-statured for a fast bowler, but in all aspects of his craft he stood taller than almost anyone else. He could swing and seam the ball both ways from an open-chested and quick-arm action that gave batsmen little indication of what was coming their way, and the skiddy bounce he obtained further added to the batsmen's woes. Whatever the conditions or the quality of the opposition team, Marshall had a way - and sometimes several - to breach their defences. Little wonder, then, that in the eyes of many pundits, Marshall ranks on top of the list of modern-day fast bowlers.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Marshall's bowling stats is the sheer consistency of his numbers across various parameters. For example, he played against five opponents, and the difference between his best and worst averages against them was slightly more than three runs: his lowest average was against England (19.58) and his highest against Australia (22.51). Of the six countries he played in (including the West Indies), the only place where he averaged more than 25 was in New Zealand (and he only played three Tests there). The difference between his home and away averages was 1.51, and it didn't matter much to him whether his captain won or lost the toss, and whether he had to bowl in the first innings or the last.
His introduction to Test cricket wasn't an auspicious one, though: in his first series, in India in 1978-79, Marshall managed only three wickets in as many Tests, and leaked more than 88 runs per wicket. He didn't play Test cricket again till the summer of 1980, and till the end of 1982 he played only nine further Tests.
Thereafter, though, the transformation was stunning. When India toured West Indies in 1983, Marshall took 21 wickets at an average of less than 24, but the series that announced his class and talent came later that year in India, with West Indies seeking revenge for that utterly shocking World Cup final defeat. Marshall was simply unstoppable, claiming 33 wickets in six Tests, including that of Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar five times each. That period started an amazing run that continued almost uninterrupted for the next eight years, during which period Marshall took 342 wickets from 69 Tests at an average of less than 20.
During the nine years from 1983 to 1991, he was one of only two bowlers who took 125 or more wickets at a sub-20 average - Richard Hadlee was the other. Marshall was the only one, though, with a strike rate of less than 45 balls per wicket.
As a match-winner, Marshall was among the very best again, with 254 wickets at less than 17. Again, only one bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan, has a better average, and one, Waqar Younis, has a better strike rate. Marshall's performances didn't drop much in defeats either: in the nine Tests in which he played in a losing cause, he still managed an average of less than 28.
Andy Lloyd tries to unsuccessfully
avoid a Malcolm Marshall bouncer
© Getty Images
Perhaps the biggest compliment to Marshall is the fact that he stood out even when he played with other great fast bowlers. The 1980s were an exceptional period for West Indian fast bowling, and yet in the Tests that Marshall played, he took almost a third of the wickets taken by their fast bowlers (31.37%). Marshall was clearly the leader of the pack - the next-highest wicket-taker in matches Marshall figured in was Courtney Walsh, with only 137 wickets from 42 Tests, while Curtly Ambrose had 128 from 29. (Click here for the full list.) Marshall's average and strike rate were significantly better than his other fast-bowling mates, and he took as many five-fors as all the other West Indian fast bowlers put together.
Not only did Marshall get many wickets, he also generally dismissed the top batsmen from the opposition line-ups. Among the batsmen he dismissed most often were Graham Gooch (16 times), Allan Lamb (13 times), Allan Border (11), Vengsarkar (10) and Gavaskar (8).
On the other hand, he didn't get rid of the tail that often; he usually left that job to the others. Of the 376 Test wickets he took, 238 were of batsmen in the top six, which is a fairly impressive percentage of 63.30. Only 17.55% of his wickets were of batsmen in the bottom three, which is the lowest among the bowlers listed below. Allan Donald and Glenn McGrath had a higher top-order percentage, but Marshall's numbers are quite a contrast to those of Wasim Akram, for whom almost 28% of wickets were of batsmen in the bottom three.
Another factor that puts Marshall above many other high-class fast bowlers is his stats in the subcontinent. The relatively slow pitches in the region have thwarted many a fast bowler, but not Marshall, whose varied skills helped him take 71 wickets in 19 Tests at an average of 23.05. Those numbers look even better if his first series in India is excluded: in the 16 remaining Tests he averaged 20.17. His overall average here, though, remains one of the best among overseas fast bowlers who've taken at least 50 wickets in the subcontinent.
The team he tormented more than any other, though, was England, against whom he took 127 wickets at 19.18 - both numbers were his best against any side.
Some of Marshall's most memorable performances came against England: on the tour of 1984, he took three five-fors in five Tests, the most memorable of which was at Headingley. Having sustained a double fracture to his left thumb, Marshall came out to bat with his hand in plaster to help Larry Gomes to his hundred; then he destroyed England in the second innings with a fantastic haul of 7 for 53. Four years later, Marshall's 7 for 22 at Old Trafford destroyed England on a pitch that was supposed to aid spin. Among bowlers with at least 75 wickets against England, Marshall's average is one of the best. (And is it a surprise that the list is dominated by West Indians?)
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Greatest fast bowler of the modern era
For Marshall, it was natural to share his passion and expertise
Vic Marks
© Cricket.web.com
Malcolm Marshall, who died in Barbados on Thursday (Nov 4) at the age of just 41, was arguably the greatest fast bowler of the modern era. The records tell us that. But of all the superb Caribbean cricketers of the last three decades, he was the most consumed by the game and the most committed to maintaining his contact with it at the sharp end - in the nets with the next generation rather than the cosy commentary box.
Statistics can only hint at the complete cricketer. Marshall was an awesome bowler, generating phenomenal pace from his five foot 10 inch frame - usually reckoned to be too short by modern standards. He could blitz you with sheer pace; he could swing you out if in guileful mood.
He sprinted up to the wicket, barely stopping at the crease to deliver the ball, slightly open-chested but with supple fingers delicately controlling the seam. If necessary, he just kept coming.
Even in his recent role as coach to the West Indian team he couldn't stop himself from bowling countless overs in the nets. No-one was more devoted to the game. His former Hampshire captain, Mark Nicholas, reckons that he has never encountered anyone with such enthusiasm for cricket. Joel Garner has said: "Malcolm's real strength was that he never gave less than 100% for any side he played in. Palling his weight for his team just meant everything to him."
These were the qualities that endeared him to colleagues and opponents alike. They were most obviously displayed against England at Headingley in 1984. There he broke his thumb, fielding close to the wicket, and he was promptly plastered up. This was the cue for most professional cricketers to watch the rest of the game from the comfort of the balcony. He was told not to play any cricket for at least 10 days.
Marshall decided otherwise. Not only did he bat one-handed to allow his team-mate, Larry Gomes, to reach his century, but in the second innings, left hand still in plaster, he proceeded to bowl England out taking seven for 53. He seemed indestructible then.
Most cricketers try pretty hard in the Test arena - though Marshall always went the extra mile - and generally the great ones coast a little when returning to the counties. Marshall would never do that even on a drab day at Bournemouth.
There was a peculiar tension when batting against Hampshire in the 80s. Even when he was grazing at mid-off you were conscious of him; you could not avoid glancing in his direction, checking his movements: "When is he coming back? How much more of Nigel Cowley will I be permitted? He's had a word with the captain. He's loosening up."
Invariably he did come back and the sternest of challenges ensued. Like all the great West Indians he never said a word to you. There might be the odd glance, an icy stare or a knowing smile, but sledging was demeaning to him - and with such pace in his armoury it was a redundant weapon any way.
"Cappy," he would chime in his slow, high-pitched Bajan accent (when he and Garner were together he speeded up and they were indecipherable to those of us born on this side of the Atlantic), "mid-off's a waste of time: put him in slips. Square leg to short leg." Then he would glide in at pace or maybe dally with his victim with an assortment of swingers (on balance, I preferred the latter). The contest was fierce and usually one-sided, but after stumps he would be chucking away with anyone.
There was a peculiar tension when batting against Hampshire in the 80s. Even when he was grazing at mid-off you were conscious of him; you could not avoid glancing in his direction, checking his movements: "When is he coming back? How much more of Nigel Cowley will I be permitted? He's had a word with the captain. He's loosening up."
I played with him four or five years ago, albeit in a charity match at Torquay against a Somerset side. Of course he bowled properly off a dozen paces with the new ball; he produced a mini-masterclass and soon induced an outside edge. An unknown 16-year-old wicketkeeper, Chris Read, took off to his right to take a stunning catch. How Marshall glowed at the magic he'd created. At the other end Read was cock-a-hoop that the world's greatest bowler was so overjoyed by the moment.
Thereafter Marshall stationed himself at mid-off alongside budding bowlers. Their chests puffed out and they revelled alongside such a generous tutor. An easy word of encouragement here and there gave them an unforgettable day. For Marshall, it was natural for him to share his passion and expertise.
In all probability, he would have developed into a great coach. Already there was a limitless demand for his services. He had been successful in Natal, where he captained the side in 1993-94. Shaun Pollock readily acknowledges his debt to Marshall.
He returned to his beloved Hampshire, where he oversaw a mini-resurgence over the past three years. And he undertook the hardest challenge of the lot: trying to arrest the decline of West Indian cricket. He was hugely frustrated by the players' threatened strike action at Heathrow prior to the South Africa tour 12 months ago - Marshall would have been mystified by their attitude - yet sympathetic to their burden of following the great team of the 80s.
He would have been welcomed with open arms at every venue during next summer's West Indies tour of England. Now, tragically, their side can only be inspired by the memory of his brilliant example of how to play the game.
Test debut India v West Indies at Bangalore, Dec 15-20, 1978
Last Test England v West Indies at The Oval, Aug 8-12, 1991
ODI debut England v West Indies at Leeds, May 28-29, 1980
Last ODI New Zealand v West Indies at Auckland, Mar 8, 1992
First-class span 1977-1996