Rod Marsh, Australian cricket great, dies at age 74
Brisbane(AP): Rod Marsh, an Australian cricket great and the wicketkeeper who formed a prolific wicket-taking partnership with pace bowler Dennis Lillee, has died a week after suffering a heart attack during a fundraising event in Queensland state. He was 74.
The Sport Australia Hall of Fame on Friday confirmed Marsh, who played 96 test matches for Australia from 1970 to 1984, had died in an Adelaide hospital.
Marsh held a test record of 355 dismissals by a wicketkeeper, including 95 off the bowling of Lillee. He also played 92 one-day internationals for Australia before retiring from top-flight cricket in February 1984.
A left-handed batter, he was the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a century in test cricket, and and finished his career with three.
He later led the national cricket academies in Australia and in England and was the inaugural head of the International Cricket Council's world coaching academy in Dubai.
In 2014, he was appointed as Australia's chairman of selectors and held the position for two years. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985.
The hall of fame's chairman, John Bertrand, said Marsh was was tactical, spoke without fear and spotted the talents of young cricketers.
Wickets were caught by Marsh and the term caught Marsh, bowled Lillee' became folklore, Bertrand said. He created history. Respected by all those he played with and against.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
