Rod Marsh: A Life in Cricket (Mark Browning, Rosnberg, $29.95 tpb, ISBN 1877058238, September) ***

Rod Marsh was Australia's first great wicket-keeper batsman. This biography concentrates mainly on his cricket career, painstakingly laying down the case for his 'greatness', without ever becoming one-eyed. Although famously controversial, Marsh the cricketer is presented here as a no-nonsense innovator who had a shrewd tactical brain and was highly respected by opponents. A Life In Cricket devotes relatively little space to Marsh's outstanding achievements since his international retirement, although he was a prime mover in the creation of the phenomenally successful ACB Cricket Academy and now runs a similar Academy in England. It is therefore reasonable to ask why this book has been written now, some 20 years after his international farewell. In fact, Browning exploits his contemporary perspective to act as historian. For instance, shedding new light on famous incidents from Marsh's playing days by quoting comments made by Marsh or his peers in the intervening period. Although the narrative occasionally lacks coherence (Which 'he'? What 'it'?), this is amply compensated for by the author's encyclopaedic knowledge not just of Marsh, but also of the milieu in which he played. Overall, it provides an even treatment of one of Australia's most colourful sportsmen.

Rob Jones is a contributor to Runners' World magazine

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2004, Thorpe-Bowker