Cricket great Rod Marsh dies aged 74

Rod Marsh defied the doubters to define a golden generation of Australian cricket.

Rubbishing the theory that the best wicketkeepers go unnoticed, Marsh made an infamously conspicuous start to what became a groundbreaking career in Test cricket.

In his debut Test of 1970, as Brisbane fans howled at the exclusion of local gloveman John Maclean, Marsh made three critical errors — dropping catches from English batsmen John Edrich, Keith Fletcher, and Basil D'Oliveira.

When the series moved to Marsh's hometown, and the boos subsided, teammate Terry Jenner quipped, «He won't miss a catch in Perth. And even if he does, you won't read about it in the papers here».

As if on cue, Marsh shelled a chance from Geoffrey Boycott.

Perth newsmen might have looked away, but journalists from the eastern states were savage. They dubbed Marsh «Iron Gloves».

Few Australian cricketers since have faced such ugly and sustained ridicule at the beginning of their Test careers. «I felt like jumping the fence and taking some positive action in defence of my honour,» Marsh later wrote.

Marsh, whose death at 74 on March 4 followed a heart attack a week earlier in Bundaberg where he was to attend a charity event, has rarely since those fledgling days as a Test cricketer needed to offer a word of self-defence. There is barely a cricket-loving city in the world where fans would not rush forward for the honour of buying him a drink.

Australian cricket has had tidier glovemen. Its ranks of great keepers now include more accomplished batters. But none possessed Marsh's macho aura, nor personified such a wildly entertaining and influential generation of cricket as had Australia's bear-like custodian of the 1970s and '80s.

It was not inappropriate that in his final