Melbourne, Australia , Nov 10: Test great Rod Marsh and retired fast bowler Andy Bichel have been appointed to the national selection panel after a shakeup of cricket administration in Australia.
Pat Howard, a former rugby international who started work this week as Cricket Australia's general manager for team performance, announced the recruitment of former wicketkeeper Marsh and paceman Bichel on Thursday.The pair will join a panel chaired by former allrounder John Inverarity.
The Australians, who have slumped from No. 1 in the test rankings, are playing a two-test series in South Africa and are expected to appoint a new head coach before starting a home series against New Zealand next month.
Tim Nielsen opted not to continue as head coach after a review of cricket in Australia conducted by a group of former test captains.Marsh's name is synonymous with Australia's test teams of the 1970s, when he kept wickets to firebrand pacemen Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee.Bichel was one of the stars of Australia's 2003 World Cup win, contributing with bat and ball.
"Rod Marsh is quite simply a legend of the game with successful high performance coaching experience in Australia, England and Dubai since he retired as, at that time, Australia's most successful wicketkeeper-batsman," Howard said in a statement from South Africa. "Andy Bichel has had success in the shortest form of the game since his retirement as a test new ball bowler and he and Rod bring complementary skills to the selection table to those of John Inverarity."
Marsh and Bichel, who has played county cricket in England and worked as coach in the Indian Premier League since his last test appearance in 2004, will be part-time selectors. Inverarity is the only full-time selector on the panel, which will also comprise the Australia captain and head coach.
"I'm excited to be back working for Cricket Australia," Marsh said. "This is an important role and I'm looking forward to watching young Australian cricketers develop and to our established cricketers continuing to improve."
Marsh played 96 tests and 92 limited-overs internationals for Australia between 1970-71 and 1983-84, retiring with 355 test dismissals and was the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a test hundred.
