The West Indies cricketer, Malcolm Marshall, who has died aged 41, was one of the finest players of his generation. It is generally accepted that he was the player responsible for rewriting accepted principles about fast bowling. He died after a battle with colon cancer, having fallen ill during last summer's World Cup.
He claimed 376 wickets during an 81-Test career, the sixth-highest wicket-taker in history.
He also took 157 one-day international wickets during 15 years with the West Indies, which ended against England at The Oval in 1991, during which time he terrorised batsmen around the world, bowling in tandem with other West Indies greats such as Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Colin Croft.
Yet perhaps his biggest legacy was the way he defied the conventions that a front-on bowler could not move the ball both ways and a bowler standing just five feet 10 inches tall was unable to generate great pace.
He was able to do both at will, his unique, whippy action and unusually small stature for a fast bowler helping him to disguise changes of pace and the length of each delivery, making his bouncer extremely difficult to pick up.
His success taught coaches around the world, including those as innovative as Bob Woolmer, that a bowler's action does not necessarily determine his ability to swing the ball.
"Malcolm had a profound effect on cricket," said Woolmer. "He proved that an open-chested action does not prevent a bowler from moving the ball both ways and that a small man could generate great pace.
"He changed the coaching of cricket in a profound way and he was great at imparting his knowledge of the game to others and his legacy will be those players passing on that knowledge."
It is a view shared by Bob Cottam, who is currently England's specialist bowling coach. "My schoolboy idols were Brian Statham and Fred Trueman but in later years Malcolm Marshall was the one bowler I would travel to watch," said Cottam.
"I loved to talk bowling with him. With his open-chested action he differed from the coaching manuals but from my point of view as a coach, that was great because it showed you there were other alternatives." Marshall's loss will be felt greatest in the West Indies. A former team-mate, Colin Croft, said that he was the best fast bowler the West Indies has produced. "He was everybody's friend - to Barbados (where he was born), West Indian cricket, the rest of the Caribbean, Hampshire and everywhere he's gone."
Marshall was simply the best
The title of Tina Turner's disco classic `Simply the Best' summed up Malcolm Marshall.
That was the tribute from former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd to the great Test fast bowler, who died aged 41.
Marshall lost his fight against cancer and passed away in his native Barbados, 40 days after marrying his girlfriend of 13 years, Connie Earle.
He claimed 376 wickets for West Indies in 81 Tests at an average of 20.94 - only bettered by Courtney Walsh amongst other great Caribbean pace kings Curtly Ambrose, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Wes Hall. Marshall, who also took 826 first-class wickets for the English county side, Hampshire, had played only one first-class match when he made his Test debut on the 1977-78 visit to India. He first visited England in 1980, subsequently touring the country three more times.
After finishing an outstanding career, Marshall took on the role of West Indies coach under the management of Clive Lloyd until being taken ill just before the start of the World Cup in May.
Lloyd said: "I think he was one of the best fast bowlers West Indies produced, a great thinker, and to take 376 Test wickets when you have three other great fast bowlers working with you at the same time has got to be one of the greatest achievements ever.
"We worked together, he started his career more or less under me and then we went into management and coaching together and I got to know him even better. He was en excellent team man, very unselfish. "He'd come on to bowl at any time - no wicket was too slow for him." A former England captain, David Gower, recalled painful memories of Marshall creating havoc in his prime when West Indies defeated England 5-0 in 1984.
Gower was skipper in that series and remembers Marshall more for a remarkable deed with the bat at Headingley when, after sustaining a double fracture of his left thumb on the first morning, he was told to rest for 10 days.
Marshall defied doctor's orders, strode out defiantly at number 11 with the hand in plaster and swished the bat one-handed and allowed Larry Gomes, perched on 96, to reach his hundred. He followed that by scything away England's second innings with seven for 53 and, in all, claimed 24 wickets in the series.
Gower said: "I played against him first for Young England against Young West Indies in 1976 and when he got into the Test side he got better and better through the 1980s.
"The classic Marshall destruction of England was in my first series as captain at Headingley when he broke his thumb, got Gomes to his hundred and took seven for almost nothing.
"Just when we were thinking we had one less fast bowler to worry about he came back and bowled us out.
"That summed him up as a player. He was as quick as anyone, he could swing the ball which added to your problems and he was a great competitor, not one to give in as Headingley proved, plus being a very intelligent fast bowler. It's not just about sheer pace.
"He was a lovely guy to be with, apart from his cricketing ability. He was a typical Barbadian, who have a good reputation for keeping a smile on their face. In the last few years at Hampshire he started to lose a little bit of his edge, of course, as regards pace, but he wanted to compete in the same way. If Hampshire were in trouble and the other side were doing well he'd still say: `Give me the ball, I'll sort them out'.
Malcolm Marshall: born 1958; died November, 1999.