Wisden overview
No member of the teams led by Ian and Greg Chappell in the 1970s so embodied their demotic appeal as Rod Marsh. Bold and blunt, he had the forearms of a blacksmith, and legs that Graeme Pollock quipped had been pinched from under a billiard table. There can scarcely have been a better keeper to pace, and he enjoyed a legendary ball-in-glove affinity with West Australian team-mate Dennis Lillee. Although his scores tapered off in later years, he was also a dangerous presence at No. 7, thumping out left-hand cover-drives. In the Melbourne Centenary Test of March 1977, he not only overtook Wally Grout's 11-year-old national record of 187 dismissals but became the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a Test century. A World Series Cricket signatory, he subsequently became an establishment proselyte as head coach at the Australian Cricket Academy. Gideon Haigh

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