Geoff Marsh

Personal information
Batting style	Right-handed batsman (RHB)
Bowling style	Right arm off-spin
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1977–1994	Western Australia
Career statistics
Competition	Tests	ODIs
Matches	50	117
Runs scored	2854	4357
Batting average	33.18	39.97
100s/50s	4/15	9/22
Top score	138	126*
Balls bowled	0	1
Wickets	0	0
Bowling average	N/A	N/A
5 wickets in innings	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a
Best bowling	N/A	N/A
Catches/stumpings	38c	31c
Source: [1], 7 May 2005

Geoffrey Robert Marsh (born 31 December 1958, in Northam, Western Australia) is a former Australian cricketer, coach and selector. He played 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day Internationals for Australia as an opening batsman. As the coach of Australia he was in charge when Australia won the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England. He later coached Zimbabwe (2001–2004) and Sri Lanka (2011–12).

Playing career[link]

Marsh was a steady, solid right-handed opening batsman and capable fielder, making his first-class debut for Western Australia as a nineteen year old in the 1977–1978 Sheffield Shield season. In 1978 he played five games of Australian rules football for South Fremantle in the West Australian National Football League before concentrating only on cricket.

Marsh established himself as a solid competitor on the domestic front and was on the fringes of the national team for a number of years before winning selection in the Australian Test team. He made his debut in December 1985 against India.

He soon made the opening position his own, batting alongside the likes of Mark Taylor and David Boon, and became an integral part of the Australian One Day International team.

Marsh played international cricket over a seven-year period, ending in 1992.

He is best remembered for his part in the Australian team that won the 1987 World Cup in India, including an unbeaten 126 against New Zealand in Chandigarh, while he also captained his country in four matches. Over his career Marsh was a solid performer in One Day International cricket, with a batting average of nearly 40 but had a very low strike rate compared to more recent opening batsman.

Geoff Marsh's Test career batting performance.

Coaching career[link]

Marsh retired from playing cricket in 1994 before taking up coaching. In July 1996 he was chosen as coach of the Australian national Test and One Day International teams, playing a vital part in continuing his country's positions as the top cricketing nation of the time. He was the coach of the Australian team that won the 1999 World Cup in England, guiding the team to seven consecutive victories to help them win the tournament.

He left the Australian coaching job and soon became a selector for the Australian Cricket Board (now Cricket Australia), although he left this position in 2001 to become coach of the Zimbabwean national teams. Marsh continued in this position until 2004 when his contract expired; many considered this decision was made due to the political circumstances of Zimbabwe's government under Robert Mugabe, although he has never commented publicly on the matter.

In Mid 2009 Geoff was appointed Head Coach of the Fremantle District Cricket Club, a club which Geoff spend most of his senior playing career with.

He is appointed as the head coach for the team Pune Warriors India which will make its IPL debut in 2011.

In September 2011, he was appointed as the head coach of the Sri Lanka national team. However, his tenure lasted barely four months. After Sri Lanka lost the Test and ODI series of their tour of South Africa in December 2011 and January 2012, he was dismissed and replaced by Graham Ford.^[1]

Family[link]

Marsh's son Shaun plays cricket for state side Western Australia and made his debut for Australia during the ODI series against the West Indians. He made his test cricket debut for Australia against Sri Lanka in 2011. He also plays in the Indian Premier League for the Kings XI Punjab team. He was the top scorer in the inaugural tournament scoring 611 runs.

His daughter Melissa plays basketball for the West Coast Waves in the WNBL.^[2]

His youngest son Mitchell is a promising young cricketer and Australian rules football player who has represented both WA and Australia at youth level and is currently captain of the Under-19 Australian cricket team. Mitchell was drafted to the Deccan Chargers for the 2010 Indian Premier League.^[3]

Career highlights[link]

Tests[link]

Test Debut: vs India, Adelaide, 1985–1986
Last Test: vs India, Adelaide, 1991–1992

• Marsh's best Test batting score of 138 was made against England, Nottingham, 1989

One-day internationals[link]

ODI Debut: vs New Zealand, Sydney, 1985–1986
Last ODI: vs Pakistan, Perth, 1991–1992

• Marsh's best ODI batting score of 146 not out was made against New Zealand, Chandigarh, 1987 World Cup
• He captained Australia in four ODIs, winning three and losing one

First class cricket[link]

Marsh scored 11,760 runs at 39.46, with 33 centuries.

• His 355* for WA v SA in Dec 1989 is the 28th highest score in first class history, and the 10th highest by an Australian.

See also[link]

• CricInfo Player Profile : Geoff Marsh
• HowSTAT! statistical profile of Geoff Marsh

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Benaud, Richie (1991). Border & Co: A Tribute To Cricket's World Champions. Hamlyn Australia. ISBN 0-947334-31-9. 

v t e Australia squad – 1987 Cricket World Cup (1st title) 1 Border (c) 2 Boon 3 Dyer (wk) 4 Jones 5 Marsh 6 May 7 McDermott 8 Moody 9 O'Donnell 10 Reid 11 Taylor 12 Veletta 13 Waugh 14 Zesers

v t e Australia squad – 1992 Cricket World Cup 1 Border (c) 2 Boon 3 Healy (wk) 4 Hughes 5 Jones 6 Marsh 7 McDermott 8 Moody 9 Reid 10 M. Taylor 11 P. Taylor 12 M. Waugh 13 S. Waugh 14 Whitney

v t e Australia squad – 1999 Cricket World Cup (2nd title) 1 S. Waugh (c) 2 Bevan 3 Fleming 4 Reiffel 5 Warne 6 M. Waugh 7 Lee 8 Julian 9 Moody 10 Lehmann 11 McGrath 12 Gilchrist 13 Dale 14 Ponting 15 Martyn Coach: Marsh

v t e Zimbabwe squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup 1 Streak (c) 2 Blignaut 3 Ebrahim 4 Ervine 5 A Flower (wk) 6 GW Flower 7 Friend 8 Hondo 9 Marillier 10 Murphy 11 Olonga 12 Taibu (wk) 13 Vermeulen 14 Whittall 15 Wishart 16 Campbell 17 Matsikenyeri Coach: Marsh Campbell and Matsikenyeri replaced Vermeulen and Murphy on 10 March 2003

Sir John Royden Maddox, FRS (27 November 1925 – 12 April 2009)^[1][2] was a British science writer. He was an editor of Nature for 22 years,^[3] from 1966–1973 and 1980-1995.^[4][5]

Early life and studies[link]

John Royden Maddox was born in Britain on 27 November 1925, at Penllergaer, near Swansea. He was the son of Arthur Jack Maddox, a furnaceman at an aluminium plant. He was educated at Gowerton Boys’ County School. From there, aged 15, he won a state scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, where he read chemistry, and King’s College, London, where he became a physicist.

Career[link]

From 1949-55 Maddox lectured in theoretical physics at the University of Manchester.

He then became the science correspondent at the Manchester Guardian, a post he held until 1964.

From 1964 to 1966 he was the coordinator of the Nuffield Science Teaching Project; after which he was appointed editor of Nature, a role he held from 1966 to 1973 (and 1980-95).

He was director of the Nuffield Foundation from 1975-79.

From 1980 to 1985 he was again editor of Nature. In 1990, he publicly investigated homeopathy claims.^[6]

Personal life[link]

Maddox lived in London, and spent time at his cottage near Brecon in south Wales, where he and his wife, Brenda Maddox, were involved in the local community. They had two children, Bronwen and Bruno Maddox.

The Sheldrake editorial 1981[link]

When the book A New Science of Life by British biologist Rupert Sheldrake was published in 1981, proposing the theory of morphic resonance instead of DNA as the basis for shapes and behavior in nature, Maddox denounced it fiercely in an editorial titled "A book for burning?"^[7] He elaborated in a 1994 BBC documentary on Sheldrake's theory: "I was so offended by it, that I said that while it's wrong that books should be burned, in practice, if book burning were allowed, this book would be a candidate (...) I think it's dangerous that people should be allowed by our liberal societies to put that kind of nonsense into currency. It's unnecessary to introduce magic into the explanation from [sic] physical and biological phenomenon when in fact there is every likelihood that the continuation of research as it is now practiced will indeed fill all the gaps that Sheldrake draws attention to. You see, Sheldrake's is not a scientific theory. Sheldrake is putting forward magic instead of science, and that can be condemned, in exactly the language that the popes used to condemn Galileo, and for the same reasons: it is heresy".^[8]

The AIDS Editorial 1983[link]

Maddox penned an editorial in April 1983 entitled "No Need for Panic about AIDS" that voiced the then-common thinking that "male homosexuals should be persuaded to change their ways" of "pathetic promiscuity" and described AIDS as a "perhaps non-existent condition".^[9]

Honours / Affiliations[link]

In 1995 Maddox was knighted. In 2000 he was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. He was a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association, and a trustee of Sense About Science.

Bibliography[link]

• Beyond the Energy Crisis
• Revolution in Biology
• The Doomsday Syndrome
• What Remains to Be Discovered: Mapping the Secrets of the Universe, the Origins of Life, and the Future of the Human Race. ISBN 0-684-82292-X (hardcover, 1998), ISBN 0-684-86300-6 (paperback, 1999)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Maddox

• John Maddox interview (1997)