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I feel that I owe Shaun Marsh an apology. Our paths have never crossed and the closest I’ve come to seeing him perform in the flesh is a Twenty20 outing for Glamorgan at Northampton the other year where he fielded for a short while before the heavens opened.
So the only information I have been able to glean about the West Australian has come from the brief snippets of action from the odd ODI and IPL performance on the TV.
These have shown, in what has been available, a clean striker of the ball with what looks to be a fairly simple and effective method.
Yet for all of this, Marsh has seemingly existed in the modern-day world that elevates individuals way out of proportion to their output on the field.
This phenomenon is headed by the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Luke Wright with Marsh in the chasing pack.
Factor in a first-class record that isn’t awful by any means but hardly leaps off the page and you may well, and most probably have been, left scratching your head as to his recent elevation.
A Test side on the up shipping in a player who has done, and I’m not the only one to highlight this, nothing at all to warrant being picked from the pack.
If you considered George Bailey to be ever so fortunate to get a Test outing – no real first-class pedigree etc etc – then your only thought upon hearing of Marsh’s call-up for a trip to southern Africa must have been ‘why?’
He’s been, he’s gone, it’s time someone else had a go. Youthful promise broken on the rocks of middle-age mediocrity.
Well that was last week and this is this week.
Marsh has stuck two fingers up at all the doubters in some style and shown that those doing the selecting actually knew what they were doing all along (well possibly not but give them some credit).
And this is where the part about the apology comes in.
After turning on the feed from Centurion Park on Wednesday and seeing the visitors were 30-odd for two, I tweeted – @RonSwann76 if you fancy following – that Marsh was the Australian equivalent of Jade Dernbach in that he’s there but nobody knows why.
It was sarcastic but there is often truth among the cynicism and I’d bet this remark would’ve found favour with plenty.
Also, it’s about as low a blow as could be inflicted in 140 characters or fewer because being placed on a par with Dernbach would be a serious blow to any international cricketer’s ego.
The manifestation of discussions among those who, you would like to think, have some nous and sense, was that of two cricketers taking their places in sides without any fathomable reason.
To this day I’m still bemused by the Surrey seamer’s presence in any England side, idiotic character or not, because he simply isn’t up to the task.
Marsh may have shown on occasion that he could be the real deal but the cons far outweighed the pros and that does not a convincing argument for inclusion make.
But if there is a better way of emphasising your credentials then an outstanding century against the best team in the world in their backyard I would like to see it.
It was clean, it was precise, it was measured and it was the effort of a veteran, not a relative newcomer playing in the hope of claiming a couple more hours at the bar.
So while I can’t for the life of me work out how England colours have ever appeared on the tattooed run leaker, I reckon I can now fathom out how the Australian equivalent belongs on the left-hander.
So for my lack of faith, sorry Shaun.