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A "moment of madness" from WA captain Mitch Marsh is likely to see the all-rounder miss at least the first Test of the season after he punched a dressing-room wall during a Sheffield Shield match with Tasmania, breaking his bowling hand.
Key points:
- The first Australian Test of the summer begins on November 21 against Pakistan
- Mitch Marsh has been in and out of the Test side for a number of years
- The injury, to his bowling hand, came after he was dismissed for 53
Scans have confirmed the injury after Marsh reacted angrily to his dismissal for 53 on Sunday's final day at the WACA Ground in Perth, having added just two runs to his overnight score of 51.
WA answered Tasmania's 337 by posting 9–383, before both captains agreed to declare a draw just before tea on Sunday.
But Marsh's dressing-room incident overshadowed the match, which WA coach Adam Voges described as inappropriate and disappointing.
Marsh participated in a cool down session with the team at City Beach on Monday morning sporting a very swollen right hand.
He visibly avoided using it, dressing and undressing mostly one handed, texting with his left hand and picking up his niece with just his left arm.
Marsh did not speak to the media but Voges was vocal in his criticism.
"It's disappointing that any Western Australian player has subjected himself to potentially missing games of cricket because of a moment of madness, particularly your captain," he said.
"It's not appropriate from any Western Australian cricketer, let alone the skipper."
Marsh set bad example: Voges
Speaking before Marsh's hand was confirmed as broken, Voges said there was no way he could have bowled yesterday.
He said Marsh had addressed the playing group and acknowledged that the incident set the wrong example.
"It's a test of his leadership, he is the leader of our group and for him to jeopardise, potentially, his position and potentially jeopardise him playing cricket for us, we don't need those dramas to be quite honest," Voges said.
"We understand the frustrations that come from high-profile and high-performance sport but, look, he needs to be better."
Voges said such behaviour was not unheard of in cricket change rooms, but was more common 20 years ago.
"Mitch is a good person, this is one moment of frustration that hopefully doesn't cost him a long period out of the game, but it might do, and it's something that he needs to address," he said.
"But it's not something that's a habit for him, it's certainly not something I've seen from him before as well, so I'm sure it won't happen again."
Voges said while it was yet to be determined how long Marsh might be sidelined, he said any games missed because of the injury would be ample penalty.
"Having spoken to Mitch, I think it's just frustration at getting out in the first over of the day, when he was certainly setting himself to hopefully bat most of the day with his brother, so that plan obviously didn't turn out and there was some frustration there," he said.
"If he misses any cricket I think that's going to be a huge punishment for him."
ABC/AAP
Topics: cricket, sport, perth-6000, wa
First posted