If ever a bowler perfected the art of fast bowling it was Marshall. He thought about it deeply, practised it diligently, and carried it out expertly. To him, fast bowling was an enduring endeavour and he applied his mind and body to its refinement. Holding reports that he found it remarkable that in the early days the Barbadian walked around with weights strapped to his legs in order to increase their strength. His leg-cutter was born when he approached Dennis Lillee after being impressed by a delivery from the Australian legend that landed around leg, yet whistled past off stump.
Standing at just 5'10" tall, a mere runt compared to his giant pace-bowling comrades, his angled, rhythmical sprint to the crease began somewhere in the mid-off area and culminated in a slightly chest-on action that was all focused power and malevolence. His "skiddy" rather than steep bounce created its own problems, and batters had serious difficulty evading his short deliveries.
Andy Lloyd, for example, had his Test match batting career curtailed to just 33 minutes during the first Test of the 1984 visit to England. Struck on the right temple by a screaming Marshall bouncer, Lloyd was out like a light as he fell motionless on the pitch. Hospitalised for several days, he was left with permanent vision impairment, he never played cricket again until 1985 and failed to regain the form that would warrant a Test recall.
During the first One-day International of England's 1986 tour to the West Indies, played in Jamaica, Mike Gatting lost his wicket when a bouncer from Marshall was redirected on to his stumps via his nose. So vicious was the blow that fragments of bone cartilage was found lodged in the seam of the ball. It was the first game of the series and Gatting never made another appearance until the last Test in Antigua, almost two months later.
Standing at just 5'10" tall, a mere runt compared to his giant pace-bowling comrades, his angled, rhythmical sprint to the crease began somewhere in the mid-off area and culminated in a slightly chest-on action that was all focused power and malevolence. His "skiddy" rather than steep bounce created its own problems, and batters had serious difficulty evading his short deliveries.
Andy Lloyd, for example, had his Test match batting career curtailed to just 33 minutes during the first Test of the 1984 visit to England. Struck on the right temple by a screaming Marshall bouncer, Lloyd was out like a light as he fell motionless on the pitch. Hospitalised for several days, he was left with permanent vision impairment, he never played cricket again until 1985 and failed to regain the form that would warrant a Test recall.
During the first One-day International of England's 1986 tour to the West Indies, played in Jamaica, Mike Gatting lost his wicket when a bouncer from Marshall was redirected on to his stumps via his nose. So vicious was the blow that fragments of bone cartilage was found lodged in the seam of the ball. It was the first game of the series and Gatting never made another appearance until the last Test in Antigua, almost two months later.
Jamaica Observer
