One of the most successful and fastest bowlers of the West Indies team was Malcolm Marshall. In this blog, we will tell you about Malcolm Marshall personal life and professional career as a cricketer in detail.
About Malcolm Marshall
Malcolm Denzil Marshall, professionally known as Malcolm Marshall was a Barbarian cricketer. He predominantly serves as a fast bowler. He is considered one of the greatest and most skilled fast bowlers of the modern era in test cricket. He is widely recognized as the greatest West Indian fast bowler of all time and undoubtedly one of the most complete fast bowlers in the whole cricket world. His bowling average in the test match was 20.94 which is the best of any player who has taken 200 or more wickets. Despite being the standard of other fast bowlers of his time, he accomplished his successful bowling. As compared to other great quicks and West Indian fast bowlers his height was short, his height was 180 cm which means 5 feet 11 inches while most of the great quick stood 183 cm which means 6 feet or above and many great West Indian fast bowlers such as Joel Garner, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh stood at 197cm which means 6 feet 6 inches or above. He created Pearson’s pace from his bowling skills with a dangerous bouncer. Within a time of just 5 years with 235 scalps with an average of 18.47, he proved himself the most successful test match bowler of the 1980s.
Early life and Education
Malcolm was born on 18 April 1958 in Bridgetown, Barbados. He was born to Denzil DeCoster Edghill and Eleanor Welch. His father was also an excellent cricketer who played for the Kingspark cricket club in St. Philips. When he was only one year old his father died in a traffic accident. Marshall has three half-brothers and three half-sisters. He spent his childhood in the parish of Saint Michael, Barbados. He completed his early education in Giles’ Boys School from 1963 to 1969. Then from 1969 to 1973, he studied at Parkinson Comprehensive.
After his father’s death his grandfather, Claudin Edghill taught him cricket. From 1976 he started playing for Banks Brewery. In August 1976, he played his first representative match for a 40-over affair for West Indies young cricketers against their English equivalents at Pointe-Ã -Pierre, Trinidad, and Tobago.
International Debut of his Career
On 15 December 1978, he made his test debut in the second test against India at Bangalore.
Then in 1980, Marshall came to fame 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. However, the match was eventually drawn despite the fact Marshall took 7-24. After that, he was out of the Test side for 2 years. But then again in the 1982 season, he took 134 wickets at under 16 apiece which include a career-best 8-71 against Worcestershire and this made him recalled among fans and thereafter he remained a fixture until the end of his International Career.
In seven successive test series from 1980 to 1986, he took 21 or more than 21 wickets each time and in the last five of them averaged under 20. In 1982, he signed a one-year contract with Melbourne Sub-District side Moorabbin and through this, he became the first active international cricketer to sign up for the sub-district league.
Marshall’s Later Career
The final appearance of Marshall was seen in the 1992 World Cup for West Indies in One Day International cricket.
He was a part of the Hampshire team which won the 1992 Benson & Hedges Cup. In 1993, he played again for Hampshire and took 28 wickets at the shade over 30 runs apiece but this was the end of his time in County cricket.
Then in 1994, his only game in England was against the South Africans for the Scarborough President’s XI during the Festival. In the 1995 Benson & Hedges Cup, he played 5 matches for Scotland without much success. His final senior appearance was against the Western province in the limited-over games at Cape Town. He took over a thousand wickets for Hampshire and earned more than £60,000 in his benefit year in 1987.
Records and Reception
He completed his career as the all-time highest wicket-taker for West Indies in Test cricket in which he took 376 wickets which was a record that he held up until November 1998 before Courtney Walsh surpassed his milestone.
Marshall was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009. Wisden enlisted him in an all-time Test World XI to mark 150 years of the Cricketers’ Almanack.
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Death and Legacy
In 1996, he became coach of both the Hampshire and West Indies teams. In 1999, during the World Cup, it was discovered that he had colon cancer. He left his job and began to take treatment but it was unsuccessful.
On 25 September 1991, he married his long-time partner Connie Roberta Earle in Romsey. But unfortunately, he died on 4 November at the age of 41.
The Malcolm Marshall Memorial Trophy was introduced in his memory and is awarded to the leading wicket-taker in each England versus West Indies test series. Another Trophy with the same name was arranged to be a prize in an annual game between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
Malcolm Marshall Memorial cricket games are still played in Handsworth Park, Birmingham, England. The entrance road to the ground of Hampshire the Rose Bowl is called Marshall drive in memory of Malcolm Marshall and another West Indian Hampshire great Roy Marshall.
The final words
Marshall was a very dangerous lower middle-order batsman with ten Test fifties and seven first-class centuries. He was one of the greatest and most efficient bowlers of his time. He was a right-handed batsman and right-arm fast bowler and especially known as a fast bowler. So overall this article was about his personal life and professional career as a player.
