“He’s Big, He’s Bad…”: Pat Cummins Reveals Favourite Barmy Army Chant Directed At Mitch Marsh

Australia captain Pat Cummins had revealed one of his favourite Barmy Army chants ahead of the ongoing away Ashes 2023 series against England. Taking his memory back to the Ashes 2015, Cummins vividly remembered the chant which was directed at his fellow teammate and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh.

While Marsh is yet to make it to the team’s Playing XI in the ongoing tour, the ever-famous Barmy Army have made sure to target a host of other Australian cricketers. The musical chants, jibes and sometimes, below-the-belt criticisms, were the highlights of the first Test match of the series at Edgbaston, with scores of member from the Army making their presence felt from the Eric Hollies stand.

From batter Travis Head, spinner Nathan Lyon, to vice-captain Steven Smith, none of them were spared by the ever-prepared fan club, which also went on to label the entire Australian team as cheats via a chant at one point in time during the match.

Pat Cummins Reveals Favourite Barmy Army Chant Directed At Mitch Marsh

During an interaction with Business of Sport around a couple of weeks ago, Cummins hilariously recalled a chant which was aimed to take a jibe at Marsh during The Oval Test eight years ago.

Recollecting the chant, the 30-year-old went, “He’s big, he’s bad, selected by his dad…Mitchell Marsh…Mitchell Marsh!”. He further mentioned that the chant was originally created for veteran England pacer Stuart Broad which went like, “He’s big, he’s bad, he’s better than his dad….Stuart Broad…Stuart Broad.”

Earlier, Cummins had mentioned that perhaps the Barmy Army had mistaken Australia’s chief selector during that time, Rod Marsh, as Mitchell Marsh’s dad (father) and had gone ahead with the chant.

However, Mitchell’s father is former Australian cricketer Geoff Marsh, who had represented Australia across 50 Tests and 117 ODIs between 1985-1992. It is worth of a mention that Geoff Marsh is no way related to Rod Marsh, despite the former also being Australian cricket board’s national men’s selector more than two decades ago.

As for late Rod Marsh, the legendary Aussie cricketer was appointed as Cricket Australia’s chief selector in May 2014 but relinquished his position in November 2016 after the team suffered back-to-back Test series losses against Sri Lanka and South Africa.

When Cummins Was Touched By Barmy Army’s Tribute For His Ill Mother

In February this year, Cummins was touched by Barmy’s Army trumpet tribute for his mother Maria Cummins, who was then seriously ill and placed under palliative care. He took to his Twitter handle to exclaim that his mother indeed felt very touched upon watching the video of the same.

This is amazing @TheBarmyArmy, thankyou. Mum loved watching this and felt very touched ❤️ https://t.co/A1iwnJSUYn

— Pat Cummins (@patcummins30) February 27, 2023

Unfortunately, Maria passed away the next month at her residence.