Stepping away from Perth captaincy and focusing on myself helped a lot: Marsh

PERTH: Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s stand-in skipper for the upcoming white-ball tour of South Africa, believes that him stepping away from the captaincy of Perth Scorchers in the BBL to focus on himself has helped in him being a bit wiser about how to be a leader in the sport.

“I think it’s been a progression over the last four or five years. When I gave up the Scorchers captaincy to focus on myself and where I was at in my life and my career, I didn’t think I had the capacity to captain any side at that point in time because I was just striving so much to try and hold my spot and get my spot back in the Test and one-day teams,” Marsh was quoted as saying by codesports.com.au.

12 months ago Marsh did not wish to be thought of as Australia’s white ball skipper, and cut to now, he’s all set to take up the leadership role, albeit only for the tour of South Africa. “You talk about staying true to yourself as a leader and I didn’t think it was fair on teams that I was captaining and I struggled as a captain at that point in time. It really clouded my decision-making as a captain.”

“It was a tough time for me personally and so … I wasn’t any good (as a captain). I found it best for me personally and most importantly the team to step away from that role and focus on myself for a while and that helped my cricket a lot and it’s all been part of my journey I guess.”

It took conversations with Australian head coach Andrew McDonald and Test captain Pat Cummins for Marsh to give captaincy of the national side a shot. “They probably got a few beers into me first. Nah, no one had to convince me. It was more conversations we had throughout the Ashes … the conversations were all pretty easy.”

“I guess even last year I didn’t necessarily want to be captain, but with where our team is at now, the environment that Ronnie (McDonald) and Patty have created and the relationship I have with Ronnie to be able to work with him as a leader in our team, that really excites me. Whether I’m any good I guess we’ll find out.”

Marsh signed off by hoping that he stays true to himself in the leadership role. “I know it’s clichéd, but I’ve always seen myself as a leader within our group. I think the biggest learnings I’ve had from my brief leadership roles and leading Western Australia and the Scorchers is to just stay true to yourself. I’ll still be myself. I’ll never change … hopefully I don’t get too grumpy.”