5 cricketers who died young?

#2 Malcolm Marshall

Malcolm Marshall

At the peak of his power, Malcolm Marshall was a raging bull that you couldn’t stop even with tranquillisers. The West Indians always had a way to produce fast bowlers, but Marshall was something else entirely.

I mean, look at his stats. In 81 Tests, he took 376 wickets at an average of 20.94. Yes, 20.94. That is the best average for any bowler that took over 200 Test wickets in the history of the game. He was fast, and really, really fast. But even Shaun Tait is fast.

What set him apart was his unmistakable sense of pitching the ball at the right areas and the ability to get the vicious late swings that make batsmen curl up in the corner of the dressing and writhe in agony.

After retiring from the game, he took up the job of coaching, but had to cut it short after finding out that he was afflicted with colon cancer. He lost his battle with the disease on 4th November, 1999, aged 41 and weighing just 25 kilos at the time.