Big honour for cricket stalwart

Revered West Australian Country Cricket Board chairman Rob Marshall will be inducted as a “legend” of senior country week cricket prior the 100th instalment of the carnival, which begins this Sunday.

A man who proudly represented Harvey-Leschenault 135 times across 31 carnivals, Marshall is unequivocally humble yet honoured by the acknowledgement.

“It sort of came a little bit out of the blue even though I’ve been involved with the board and its processes for a while,” he said.

“I kind of lost track of the fact that back in 2007 they named an initial six legends.

“For myself, Dave Hutchinson and Shane Tobin – I know I’ve spoken with the other two and it’s massively humbling.

“It is just a nice little full stop I guess on our careers. And strangely enough, we all started our senior country week careers in the same year, 1984, which is quite bizarre.”

Growing up, Marshall had no shortage of cricketing prowess to learn from – with father Arthur and both brothers Don and David having lengthy careers at senior country week.

“Cricket was always going to be in my blood and my soul,” he said. “Dad had pioneered so much in WA regional cricket – particularly down this way.

“To this day he is hailed as the legend of Harvey cricket.

“My brothers, who were a little bit older than me, had also forged their paths by the time I was ready to get up and going.”

Marshall developed two major passions during his career – a passion for situational cricket and an unwavering sense of pride representing Harvey-Leschenault at any opportunity.

“Every time I walked out to bat or bowl, my heart was on my sleeve for Harvey-Leschenault,” he said.

“The passion ran wild. Everything I did was to win for Harvey-Leschenault. And not only did I spend a lot of my career boxing outside of my weight division as an individual, we did also as a team.

“We didn’t have the numbers that associations like Bunbury, Geraldton or Kalgoorlie had – and yet for long periods of time, we would beat those teams and be ultra-competitive.

“I’m massively proud to say the majority of my career was with Harvey and Harvey-Leschenault because we achieved way more than we should have in reality.”

In his role as chairman of the WA CCB, Marshall believes his career at Harvey-Leschenault has enhanced his ability to relate with players and the issues faced by those in smaller associations.