Mar 06 2019

Between us, Malcolm Marshall and I played 81 Tests, took 376 Test wickets and won a First Grade Premiership together for Waverley in the Sydney Grade Competition in 1991-1992.

At the beginning of that 1991-1992 season, my goals were to try and force my way into the First Grade side, have fun and have a bit of success along the way. Standard summer goals really.

By the end of the season, we’d won a premiership and I opened the bowling with someone that many have described as the greatest and most feared fast bowler of all time, Malcolm Marshall. What a summer!

Sir Vivian Richards, when asked of all his West Indies fast bowlers, who was the best…Malcolm’s name came up often.

Somehow the planets aligned, Malcolm was in Australia during the 1991-92 season and wanted to stay for the summer and play cricket here. Enter Waverley Cricket Club!

And what a pleasure it was having Malcolm with us for those four or so months. Not only one of the greatest cricketers but a resounding man to go with it.

Malcolm fitted in like he was just one of the lads. Not a superstar, just loving playing cricket and enjoying the comradery and humorous banter that only a positive club and season can bring.

I always will remember him turning up to his first training session. We were all in awe. Not many batters wanted to get into the first net to face him that afternoon.

Post that first training we went to The Bellevue Hotel for a few introductory beers, a bit of a meet and greet. Then it was off to the Four in Hand Hotel down the road. The pub was packed. Malcolm walked in. When the patrons realised who had just entered they stood as one to give him a cheer and ovation. It was unbelievable.

He was always a shining light in the dressing room during his time with the club, from his constant bewilderment at Greg “Mo” Matthews latest fashion trends, to his banter with Greg around the fierce rivalry between Australia and the West Indies at the time.

Malcolm and Greg developed a special relationship that summer. They were great together. A lot of fun. (Although I suspect the relationship was stretched the one and only time that Malcolm decided to get a lift to one of the games on a Saturday morning with Greg. Malcolm was in disbelief with Greg’s strange interpretation of what a red traffic light actually meant. Suffice to say that Malcolm travelled with Mark Patterson and me to games after that!)

Greg’s dressing room game of the summer was “Man I will give any cat $50 if they can guess what these cowboy boots are made of” was his torment to us all. Now for Malcolm, a cat was something that purred and meowed, so already he was confused with Greg’s “Moisms”. Anyways those “Sting Ray” boots were a hit throughout the season. No one guessed.

Malcolm was always the first to get back to the Back Room (the famous club rooms at Waverley Oval) on Saturday nights to share the cricket stories of the days battle on the field across all the grades.

Whilst he held his first-grade teammates in high esteem, he was always more interested in who was doing what in the lower grades, chatting, advising, enquiring and laughing with the lower grade cricketers. (and all this whilst he tried to work out what the hell Hey Hey its Saturday was all about when showing on the club TV each Saturday night. No one left the Back Room til HHIS was finished!...by the end of the season Malcolm was totally engrossed with Dicky Knee and Red Faces!!).

Wednesday nights was “going out with Malcolm nights”. We would normally start at the Bellevue Hotel, Paddington but this was always just the precursor (“prees”) for “Wednesday Nights at Rogues”. Here he and his newly formed close mate Mark Patterson were a great partnership, with Captain Paul Pritchard.

It was old school club grade cricket, everyone enjoying each other’s company off the field as much as on it. Malcolm loved to spend time with his team and club mates. He chatted and engaged with the First Grade Number 1 to the 5th Grade Number 11 and everyone in between.

At training, Malcolm was always focussed and prepared as though it was his next Test Match and at the same time spoke and encouraged the younger cricketers in the nets.

Malcolm was shorter in height, and in real terms did not fit the archetypal 6 foot plus plenty type fast bowler. However, he defied fast bowling logic to become one of the greatest with that unmatched quick, rhythmical and balanced approach to the crease. To stand at mid-off and watch a powerhouse with his angled run was an absolute treat. He was into the bowling crease and through it in a flash whilst the ball absolutely kissed the wicket at great pace. Turbo!

To have Malcolm standing at mid-off whilst bowling was totally surreal. This was the same guy who for nearly a decade prior wreaked havoc on international sides and now he was yelling at me “C’mon Shoooook” (Malcolm’s good-humoured variation of my nickname Chook!)

He was super fit and was always fiercely competitive. One game I remember he had a right-handed batsman given not out for a caught behind appeal. The batter clearly nicked it.

Malcolm wasn’t happy. From here he chided the batsman something along the lines that he didn’t want to get him out anymore but instead, he wanted to leave him at the crease to make it a tad little more uncomfortable for the batter for a while. What proceeded was a barrage of super quicker deliveries from around the wicket. Not my idea of a great way for a batter to spend a lazy grade Saturday morning cricket game, to be honest.

Malcolm bowled two memorable and fast spells that summer. One at Trumper Oval verses Bankstown and the other the semi-final against Randwick at Waverley Oval.

The game versus Bankstown, we were in a bit of trouble overnight in a two day Saturday/Sunday game. Bankstown got off to a flyer late on day one in pursuit of our total of the 270. In the field, a few dropped catches in the slips off Malcolm's bowling that Saturday afternoon didn’t sit well with him. (My knock on hit me in the chest before I saw it!).

At the club BBQ at Trumper Park that Saturday night, Malcolm pulled Bob Horsell our Club President at the time aside. Bob was obviously concerned at our lacklustre effort on Day 1, and Malcolm said “Pres it is ok. I will get you the points tomorrow”. The game finished with what appeared to be the last batsman stepping on his stumps whilst facing Malcolm to simply get the hell out of there and finish the game quickly. An easy victory to us.

In the Randwick semi final game, I had just taken a key wicket bowling from the Bondi Road end in only my third over of the spell. After that over there was a yell from the skip Paul Pritchard “Chook have a breather mate”…well of course, all hell broke loose in my mind. I had just taken a wicket, it’s a semi-final and I was feeling great at the crease. Life was good. Just been spelled. I was not happy.

“Malcolm next over from Chook’s end please was “was the call from Captain Pritchard.

Sort of hard for me to maintain my frustration really at that point. Just been replaced by the world greatest fast bowler and I am thinking do the batsmen want to face Me or Malcolm, Me or Malcolm….hard to work out really!?

Well for the next 30-45 minutes we had the pleasure in witnessing one unbelievable spell of fast bowling! We went on to beat Randwick which included a swashbuckling 50 odd with the bat by Malcolm to seal the win.

The Final was rain affected. Enough for Waverley to bat, only to see Malcolm run out for a duck in a mix up that probably wasn’t his fault. I pitied the batsman at the other end. Suffice to say that Malcolm didn’t see the humour in Mark Pratt’s call at the time and of course I am pretty sure Malcolm let Mark know about it!

It’s the only time I have seen a standing ovation from the crowd for a duck. Such was the respect and admiration for Malcolm.

We went on to be crowned Premiers by virtue of the game being washed out. Waverley were the highest qualifiers so the premiership was ours.

The Premiership celebration that Sunday night back at The Bellevue Hotel was a lot of fun and rather large. Malcolm was front and centre of the celebrations. He loved it. We all had a fantastic night recounting an unbelievable season, the great mateships formed and the opportunity for us to play with greatness in Malcolm.

Sadly Malcolm left this planet way too early. A loss of a great man and a great cricketer. We got lucky with Malcolm’s arrival and time spent at Waverley Cricket Club in the summer of 1991-1992. It was a gift from the cricketing gods for us all.