Shaun Marsh - A representative of cricket's aesthetic pleasures

Shaun Marsh in action for Australia

It's the summer of 2008. The IPL is in its first season. Such is its popularity that almost all Indian evenings have been reserved for live action on TV. It's something that has never been seen before, except for maybe the World Cup. The IPL, in virtually all senses, is grand.

One of these evenings, I, along with a couple of my friends am watching a match involving the Kings XI Punjab. It's mostly because we want to see Yuvraj Singh bat. Another reason is the chance to hang out with each other. This means we are hardly paying any attention until it's Yuvraj's turn to bat.

But then, while we are busy trading cricket cards, one of us screams “shot”. We all look at the TV in unison. A left hander has just played the sexiest, prettiest, most gorgeous cover drive ever. With each passing replay, and there are three, it seems even better. The cards are forgotten, there's no way we are missing this.

In the most cheesy and dramatic manner, one guy tells us that his name is 'Marsh, Shaun Marsh', reading first the name at the back of his jersey and then the scoreboard. He's an uncapped 24 year old Australian. It's only his second or third game of the season. I make mental reminders about not missing a single game where he was playing. I don't.

Shaun Marsh scores a delightful half century in that match. He then goes on to become the highest run getter of the tournament, despite the presence of a host of big names from all around the world. A month later he smashes 81 against the West Indies on ODI debut.

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December 2015. It's been seven years since Marsh first played international cricket. Big things, big runs were expected from him. A century on test debut in 2011 further increased the expectations. But Marsh couldn't live up to the hype. 

Sixteen tests and forty six ODIs is all he has played. His averages, 33 and 39 respectively.

He is now 32. An unfulfilled talent. Going by these numbers, only by these numbers, Marsh has been written off by many as a mediocre batsman.This perception, of him being just another cricket playing bloke, is shared by many. But then, they fail to realize that Marsh is something more than numbers, something more than runs.

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There lies, in the present times, largely two sets of cricket audiences. One, the ever-present purists, and the other, the new sets of cricket lovers, those who have been introduced to the game in the T20 era.

As much as cricketers deny wanting to impress purists, there's no truth in that. The purists have a fixed notion of how their favourite batsmen should be. They should be consistently piling up big scores, they should be able to graft, bat out days just defending. They should work hard for their runs and have a watertight defensive technique. Most are not pretty to watch either.

A lot of batsmen want to prove that they are worthy of being called test cricketers, something which recognition from these purists, former cricketers and ardent followers of test match cricket, can easily provide. It's their respect the players are after. Some get that respect, some don't.

The other majority are the new sets of spectators who belong to the T20 era. These are spectators who prefer those batsmen who score quick runs, hit colossal sixes and powerful boundaries. The T20 specialists, and the dashers are the ones with whom this group's loyalty lies.

Marsh doesn't fit in either category. He's not a run machine, as the purists would expect him to be. He's not a dasher, a Chris Gayle sort of player that the T20 generation would expect him to be.

Consequently, support or fondness for this type of players is not widespread. It lies within a small category of watchers who are not rigid, who prefer batsmen that stir emotions through their strokeplay, those who seem graceful and effortless. Those can be batsmen who are run machines, as Stephen Fleming  was, or they can be inconsistent ones like Marsh is. This group like batsmen who are easy on the eye, who make cricket look beautiful.

Marsh is that type of a player, the kind which seems more elegant than elegance itself.

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While it is easy to write Marsh off because he doesn't score big runs, that itself being the purpose of batting, we need to appreciate the aesthetic beauty that his batting brings to the game.

A commonly used phrase amongst today's players is "The process is more important than the result". We could do well to sometimes apply that phrase to batting as well, giving strokes as much importance as runs.

Instead of the runs, if we sometimes cared about the way those runs are made, the nonchalance with which strokes are played, then perhaps players like Marsh wouldn't be written off as mediocre. 

While they do get temporary applause, mostly immediately after a stunning shot, they are hardly ever rated by anyone. Even though batting is about runs, sometimes this rut about runs gets mechanical. Sometimes, we need to break free from it and just appreciate batting as a process of bat striking the ball, and not as an art of making runs.

Even though batsmen like Marsh often frustrate, capable as they seem of bigger innings, the serene joy of watching them in action, even if for the very limited time they tend to stay at the crease, is quite unbelievable. Only if we look at it from a perspective not having anything to do with runs, that is.

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This week, Marsh made a magnificent 182 against the West Indies, spread over two days and 266 balls. A strike rate of 68 was only due to the acceleration during the later part of his innings. For the major part, he was restricting his shots. He was defending, he was leaving. At one stage, he had added just 13 runs to his total in the same time as Adam Voges added 69 to his. The signature shots were there, but they were brought out only once he settled down. It was an all round excellent test innings.

Maybe, the purists would be impressed. Most likely, they won't, for they will treat it as a once-in-a-blue-moon performance. While this innings, and Marsh's strokeplay will be appreciated, he himself won't be. It couldn't be more ironical than this. It won't be more ironical than this.

Marsh doesn't need the respect of purists. He doesn't need the blind admiration of the newer fans. Anybody who recognizes and understands beauty would be seduced by his batting. In an ideal world, nothing else should matter. It’s sad that in the real world, it actually does.

Cricket, like the big wide world, is composed of different types of players. All are important. So is the small group that Marsh represents. Each has something different to offer. Players like Marsh reflect the aesthetic pleasures the game is capable of providing. There's no way we should be treating them as mediocre. It’s an insult to them. It’s an insult to cricket.

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"Beautiful shot" screams the commentator. I turn to look. Shaun Marsh has driven one straight to the fielder at cover during his 182 this week at Hobart. It’s a dot ball, but I still gasp in amazement while watching the replay.

It's not always about the runs. Sometimes it's just about batting.