Biography

A bowling average of less than 21 and a strike rate of a wicket every seven overs, in Tests is one of the best around, especially for bowlers who have taken more than 200 wickets. Malcolm Marshall achieved the same while picking up 376 Test wickets, with a combination of pace, swing, seam and a very deceptive bouncer that very few batsmen could read.

He made his debut in the late 1970s when many of the regular West Indian stars joined the Kerry Packer sponsored WSC, but he peaked in the early 1980s, mesmerizing the English batsmen on a regular basis in English conditions that suited his style of bowling. As a lower order batsman, he hit 10 half centuries in Tests, and once batted with one hand, after fracturing the other hand. With a plaster on his left hand, he bowled like a man processed and took seven wickets to sink an already demoralized English team.

Post retirement, Malcolm Marshall took up coaching, he coached both Hampshire – where he had plied his trade for many years as a bowler – and West Indies, but was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999. He could not recover and died of the same in November 1999. The world cricket had lost a cricketing great.