Marlon Black

Marlon Black, a muscular fast-medium bowler, had an economical run-up where he seemed to gather pace as he got close to the stumps and then reached the batter a fraction quicker than expected. On Test debut in Brisbane, he held his own in an attack comprising Courtney Walsh, Nixon McLean and Mervyn Dillon, and had a dream start, counting Michael Slater, Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting among his victims in a four-wicket haul. But that was to be his best performance in international cricket, in which he played six Tests and five ODIs.

Black was out with team-mates Wavell Hinds and Sylvester Joseph in Melbourne at the end of that tour of Australia in January 2001 when the three of them got involved in a scrap with three locals, which, reports said, ended with Hinds and Joseph running away but Black being knocked down to the ground and beaten up. Black's version, as told to the Victorian County court by the crown prosecutor, was that he had been punched and kicked repeatedly to the head and the body by the three men and struck with a garden stake. The prosecutor said Black took four months to recover.

He did play three more Tests and one ODI after that, but was slower than earlier, and his career meandered to a close in 2004. He did, however, continue playing club cricket in England, where he based himself after retirement.