“I still can’t believe that our mate isn’t around anymore”: Dennis Lillee pays tribute to Rod Marsh on his funeral at Adelaide Oval

Dennis Lillee paid his tributes to his friend and fellow cricketer Rod Marsh who passed away due to a heart attack.

Legendary Australian wicket-keeper Rod Marsh recently passed away at the age of 74 in Adelaide. Rodney Marsh is considered one of Australia’s most respected wicket-keepers. He had a then world-record tally of 355 dismissals in his Test career, which lasted for 14 years. Marsh scored 3,633 Test runs in addition to having 1,225 ODI runs under his belt. In first-class cricket, he had scored over 11,000 runs.

Rod Marsh comes from a sporting family. His elder brother Graham was an outstanding professional golfer for Australia and won eleven times on the European Tour. Both brothers represented WA at cricket at the schoolboy level. Rod Marsh is a part of the Australian Hall of Fame as well as the ICC Hall of Fame.

Dennis Lillee gives tribute to Rod Marsh

Dennis Lillee was a close friend to Rod Marsh, and he said that he still can’t believe that his friend is no more with him. He said that he doesn’t want to talk about Marsh’s cricketing ability as he loved Marsh as a person.

“I still can’t believe that our mate and mate to many isn’t around anymore,” Lillee said.

“I don’t want to talk about his cricketing ability…it’s the person Rod Marsh that I loved.”

#OnThisDay in 1984, Rod Marsh, Greg Chappell and Dennis Lillee finished their marvellous Test careers pic.twitter.com/EjMYLE6PsN

— ICC (@ICC) January 6, 2016

Dennis Lillee also shared a funny incident with Rod Marsh when they were forced to stand on the road due to a punctured tyre, and they found an eight-meter long snake.

“I said I’d watch out for the snake while Bacchus [Marsh] got under the car to lower the spare,” Lillee said.

“Pinched one of his ankles …. he hit his head on the under-carriage and then shot out from under the car and got back in.”

“I just couldn’t stop laughing, but it backfired as he refused to get out and I was left to change the tyre with one eye looking out for that bloody reptile.”

Rod Marsh came from a sporting family. His elder brother Graham was an outstanding professional golfer for Australia and won eleven times on the European Tour. Both brothers represented WA at cricket at the schoolboy level.