WA great Marsh calls time on rollercoaster ride

Despite his presence in and around state and international cricket for almost four decades, Shaun Marsh leaves the game that has been quite literally his life as something of an enigma.

Marsh, who today announced his immediate retirement from first-class and one-day cricket four months shy of his 40th birthday, will be rightly remembered as a Western Australian legend having finished as the state's all-time, all-formats leading runs scorer ahead of his former teammate and coach, Justin Langer.

Image Id: FFCB851F5D00483FB25ECD906CFD7365

But the prolific left-hander is also remembered for his rollercoaster journey through international ranks where lapses of form and loss of fitness prevented him becoming a long-term presence in Australia teams.

Few of his peers could claim to hit the ball more sweetly through the covers or down the ground, but Marsh's timing – whether a succession of soft-tissue injuries, or simply through circumstances – was otherwise jarringly absent.

As a consequence, some might see his return of 38 Tests (average 34.31) and 88 limited-overs matches for Australia as below par for a player of such undisputed quality and enduring longevity.

But the quietly spoken father of three – as publicly shy as his younger brother, Mitchell, is gregarious – was beloved by teammates for his steely resolve, and feared by opponents who found him in brutal full flight.

Image Id: 13C0746905CD4110AC3D100394CB2AE2

Marsh was seemingly destined for a Baggy Green Cap from the moment he was born in 1983, the first son of former Australia opener Geoff 'Swampy' Marsh (and wife Michelle) who spent many of his early years inside international and state-team dressing rooms with his dad.

His earliest cricket memory was, as a five-year-old, watching his father at work during the 1989 Ashes series in the UK where Australia reclaimed the urn for the first time in a decade.

By age 16, son of Swampy (known as simply 'SoS') was chosen as Ed Cowan's opening partner for Australia at the 2000 under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, in a team including future Test players Nathan Hauritz (captain), Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and current men's team coach Andrew McDonald.

Barely a year later, Marsh became the youngest player in almost 50 years to represent WA at Sheffield Shield level when he debuted against South Australia at the WACA Ground aged 17 years and 236 days.

His captain that game was Tom Moody who had played alongside Shaun's dad for WA and Australia, while the rival skipper was Darren Lehmann who would later mentor Marsh as Australia coach.

Image Id: B32F5EA7D46941458460A4BCCA95EBB8 Image Caption: Marsh batting for WA in 2003 // Getty

Despite his pedigree, Marsh struggled to make his mark in a star-studded WA outfit until the summer of 2007-08 when he batted almost eight hours for an unbeaten 166 against Queensland, and finished the season with an average in excess of 60.

He made his ODI debut for Australia several months later against West Indies in Jamaica where his 81 from 97 balls earned him player of the match honours, but it would be a further four years before he earned a Test call-up.

It came when ex-skipper Ricky Ponting returned home during the 2011 series in Sri Lanka and, having been thrown into the pivotal number three batting berth for his debut Test, Marsh made a memorable 141 to become the 14th Australia men's player to post a century in their maiden innings.

But the 12 months that followed became something of a thumbnail sketch of the remainder of Marsh's international career.

Image Id: AD826F698FCD43A7848437EC845BA59C

Having retained his place (at the expense of Usman Khawaja) when Ponting returned for the final Test of that campaign, Marsh enhanced his standing with 81 at Colombo only to find himself out of the team two games later.

In what would become a pattern over subsequent years, Marsh succumbed to injury at a crucial time when a back problem prevented him batting in his number three role during the calamitous 47-all-out rout against South Africa at Cape Town.

It began a downward spiral for Marsh who was recalled for the four-Test home series against India in 2011-12 where his return of 17 runs (average 2.83) from six innings saw his tenure ended and his card marked by sceptics who doubted his credentials.

A couple of off-field lapses coupled with diminishing on-field returns led to the then 29-year-old being dropped from WA's red and white-ball teams and his cricket life hung in the balance until Langer took the reins at the WACA in late 2012.

Image Id: FBDE13001E0E48529AB9272BFA69B0EA Image Caption: Langer and Marsh together in 2018 // Getty

Upon assuming the coaching position, Langer's first item of business was a visit to the Marsh family home where – in front of his former teammate and Australia coach, Geoff – he bluntly told Shaun his future as a WA player could not be guaranteed.

"I spoke to his parents and his manager (Stephen Atkinson) and I just laid it on the line to him, because I’ve known Shaun since he was one year old,” Langer told cricket.com.au in 2014.

"I said to him 'I’ll keep loving you, I’ll keep giving you a hug but you can’t be in the organisation any more if you keep going down this track'."

Langer's words were heeded and his faith rewarded when Marsh not only won back his place in WA's starting XI but was recalled to Australia's ODI outfit at the end of the 2013-14 Ashes summer, and then added to the Test squad for the subsequent tour to South Africa.

The calf injury (which would become a recurring issue) meant he was cruelly sidelined when the South Africa touring party embarked, but when Watson was ruled out of the first Test Marsh was flown over and two days later produced a game-high score of 148 on a brutally spicy Centurion pitch.

It was the sort of knock upon which lesser careers have been sustained, but true to type Marsh returned a pair of ducks in the next Test and was out of the team by series end.

From then until his final Test, against India at the SCG in January 2019, Marsh's aggregate of 29 from a possible 52 Tests played by Australia underscored his unsettled tenure within the team.

Perhaps nothing better illustrates that head-spinning selection quandary than his record-breaking 449-run fourth-wicket stand with Adam Voges against West Indies at Hobart in 2015, of which Marsh's contribution was 182 off 266 balls faced.

When the starting line-up was finalised for the next Test against the same opponent at the MCG a fortnight later, Marsh had lost his place to Khawaja whose hamstring strain earlier in the summer had opened the door for his fellow left-hander.

It would be eight months and seven Tests before Marsh earned a recall – again, in place of Khawaja – and he duly posted Australia's first individual century of their wretched 2016 Sri Lanka tour, only to be forced out with a broken finger two matches later.

He looked to have finally shored up a permanent place after scoring centuries at Adelaide (126no) and Sydney (156) during Australia's 2017-18 Ashes triumph, but a string of mediocre scores in South Africa and then the UAE (after Langer took over the national coaching job) again placed him in peril.

Despite playing his final Test in 2019 and being forced out of Australia's ODI outfit for the final time after sustaining a fractured arm at the World Cup of the same year, Marsh remained a force in domestic cricket.

He was voted by his peers as men's domestic player of the year at the Australian Cricket Awards for 2019-20 and 2020-21.

And last summer, he realised a burning career aspiration by leading WA to their first Marsh Sheffield Shield title since 1998-99 and celebrating the first such triumph of his senior playing days in Perth.

"It was pretty emotional," he said in the wake of his team's drawn final against Victoria at the WACA last year which broke the 23-year Shield drought.

"I shed a few tears and I guess the reality of what was about to happen was starting to sink in."

At age 38 and having pocketed the Shield-One Day Cup double with WA, Marsh openly contemplated retirement but ultimately opted to sign a one-year contract extension after discussions with current coach, Voges.

However, recovery from off-season knee surgery meant a late start to the season that was further delayed when he suffered a calf strain that prevented him from playing until January this year, and then a hamstring strain after his first couple of appearances in BBL|12.

Marsh showed how destructive he can be despite advancing years and a fragile body when he clubbed an unbeaten 82 off 53 balls in this summer's final game for Melbourne Renegades, to whom he remains contracted for a further season.

But in what would prove the last of his 183 first-class matches stretching over 22 years, he copped another finger fracture in attempting to clasp a low slips catch against South Australia in Adelaide last month and was dismissed for one and 16 as WA slumped to a rare Shield loss.

Given he has experienced greater and steeper vicissitudes than most across his lifelong cricket journey, it was perhaps pre-ordained to finish thus.