No lamb: all-round good guy gets just deserts

Mitch Marsh’s fight back to the Test team has been marked by humility and hard work.

Australia's Mitchell Marsh celebrates taking the wicket of England's Jonny Bairstow Picture: AFP

It was Naomi Watts who turned down a date with Tom Cruise because mum was cooking roast lamb that night. Mitchell Marsh has turned down mum’s lamb roast for a chance to return to the Test team.

When you love a feed as much as Mitch it’s a sacrifice of the same scale as Naomi’s.

“When you are not playing for Australia it’s not that hard to make a few changes,” the younger of the Marsh brothers said. “It wasn’t terrible, my body just likes to put on weight easily, and my mum likes to feed me. I haven’t had as many roasts at home in the last six months. But it hasn’t been that hard, I love playing for Australia, I just love it, and I want to keep doing it, so I’ll keep working.”

It is hard to understand the contempt for Marsh among certain sections of cricket fans. He is one of the most likeable of Australia’s cricketers, a charismatic and sunny figure extremely popular among his peers.

Perhaps it is the lot of the almost but not quite allrounder. When Shane Watson retired he handed that jacket with its dart board target on the back and “kick me” instructions to Marsh.

If you did not see his press conference after taking four wickets on day one of The Oval Test I urge you to do so. It was a study in humility and humour, a rare glimpse of character.

“Most of Australia hate me,” he said with a laugh.

That’s OK, he intimated. Understandable, even. He wasn’t looking for sympathy.

“Australians are passionate, they love their cricket, they want people to do well,” he rationalised. “There’s no doubt that I’ve had a lot of opportunity at Test level and I haven’t quite nailed it but hopefully they can respect me for the fact I keep coming back, I love playing for Australia, I love wearing the baggy green cap. I keep trying, hopefully I win them over one day.”

On Thursday and Friday he took a step in that direction, gutting the England innings with his Test-best figures of 5-46.

But the resentful see the huge pay packets, the five-star luxury and respond with fury to any failure by those privileged few. They do not see the anguish that is falling short, of being almost good enough to be among the handful of cricketers who can play cricket for Australia. All the time paddling like a duck. The doubts, the jeer squad and the nights in hotel rooms with only such to keep you company.

You don’t want to make excuses, but sometimes you open your shirt, like Marsh did about the past 12 months.

“I wasn’t making runs,” he admits. “When you bat four for Australia you need to make runs. Last year was a range of stuff. A few things in my personal life, I lost a close friend to suicide at the start of the summer. When things like that happen I didn’t handle it as well as I could have. It transitioned into my cricket at times as well.

“When you play cricket and you want to do well badly and it doesn’t work out it’s very easy to get down on yourself. I was certainly at that stage, so I did a lot of work with our sports psych Matt Burgin at WA about detaching myself from the outcome, working as hard as I can, getting as fit as I can and preparing well.

“I understand everyone goes through tough periods in their life, I certainly didn’t handle that as best as I could. To have gone through that and got through the summer the way that I did, and finish for WA, I knew I still had love for the game.”

Marsh was excited to be selected again. “I was like a kid at Christmas,” he said. “Through a long series like this, being 12th man, it can be a long journey. But I try to have a positive impact on the group as much as I can, work away in the background, and wait for my opportunity. I was pumped to get it this game. There has been no secret recipe, I just worked my bum off hoping to get another opportunity. Today (Thursday) was a really pleasing day.”

And for those who know Marsh and what he puts himself through it was a pleasing day too. And if the day that follows is disappointing there is a mob waiting to let him know.