Rodney Marsh, Australian cricket great, dies aged 74

One of cricket’s greatest wicket-keepers, Marsh died a week after suffering a heart attack during a fundraising event in Queensland

With a distinctive mustache, unbuttoned shirt and a baggy green cap like a beacon behind the stumps, the sight of Rod Marsh and the sound of his name pervaded Australian summers in the 1970s and early 80s.

The cricket great, who formed a prolonged and prolific wicket-taking partnership with Australian pace bowler Dennis Lillee, died in an Adelaide hospital on Friday just over a week after having a heart attack during a fundraising event in Queensland state. He was 74.

A stocky and stoic wicketkeeper-batter, Marsh was half of a catchphrase that was synonymous with the era of Test cricket: caught Marsh, bowled Lillee. They combined a record 95 times to dismiss opposition batters in Test cricket.

“This is a tremendously sad day for Australian cricket and for all those who loved and admired Rod Marsh," Cricket Australia chairman Lachlan Henderson said. "Rod will be forever remembered for the way he played the game and the pleasure he brought crowds as a member of some great Australian teams — 'caught Marsh, bowled Lillee’ has iconic status in our game.”

Marsh and Lillee made their Test debuts in the 1970-71 Ashes series against England and retired after a Test against Pakistan in 1984. Both finished with 355 dismissals, records at the time for a wicketkeeper and for a fast bowler.

Marsh played in the first one-day international on Jan. 5, 1971 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and retired from top-level cricket after his 92nd ODI, against the West Indies in February 1984. He was also involved in World Series Cricket, which polarized international cricket in the late 1970s before revolutionizing the sport for professional players and fans.

A left-handed batter, he was the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a century in Test cricket — against Pakistan at Adelaide in 1972 — and finished his career with three. He later led the national cricket academies in Australia and in England and was the inaugural head of the International Cricket Council's world coaching academy in Dubai.