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| Full name | Victor James Marks | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1955-06-25)25 June 1955 (age 69) Middle Chinnock, Somerset, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Skid, Speedy[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-armoff break | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | All-rounder | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relations | Joseph Eckland (nephew) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 499) | 26 August 1982 v Pakistan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 19 March 1984 v Pakistan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ODI debut (cap 55) | 30 May 1980 v West Indies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last ODI | 4 September 1988 v Sri Lanka | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1975–1978 | Oxford University | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1975–1989 | Somerset | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1986-87 | Western Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:CricInfo,21 December 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Victor James Marks (born 25 June 1955)[2] is an Englishsports journalist and former professionalcricketer.
Anoff spin bowler, Marks played in sixTest matches and thirty fourOne Day Internationals forEngland. His entirecounty cricket career was spent withSomerset, spanning the period between 1975 and 1989. Marks also played forOxford University whilst a student and had one season playing inWestern Australia, winning theSheffield Shield 1986–87.
After retiring as a player, Marks became a cricket journalist. He writes match reports and opinion pieces forThe Guardian andThe Observer newspapers, and frequently appears onBBC Radio'sTest Match Special as asummariser.
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Marks was born on 25 June 1955 inMiddle Chinnock, Somerset. He was educated atBlundell's School andOxford University, for whom he played cricket between 1975 and 1978 (alongsideImran Khan andChris Tavaré, and oppositePeter Roebuck ofCambridge University, subsequently Marks'captain atSomerset). Marks captained Oxford University in 1976 and 1977.
Marks made hisfirst-class debut forSomerset in the1975 County Championship. Even in a Somerset side coming into a successful period, with high-profile players, notablyViv Richards andIan Botham, Marks at times stood out, especially inList A cricket. In 1982 he wasman of the match in the final as Somerset won theBenson and Hedges Cup,[3] an achievement he repeated in 1983 as Somerset won theNatWest Bank Trophy.[4]
Marks had made his debut for the national team in 1980, inan ODI against the West Indies. HisTest debut was in1982 against Pakistan. In a series decider, Marks made two crucial interventions at tense stages, dismissingSikander Bakht and joiningBob Taylor in the partnership that clinched victory.[5] However, the dismissal of Sikander was contested, and inadvertently helped to trigger a sequence which led to the stand off betweenShakoor Rana andMike Gatting five years later.[6]
He went on to play six Test matches,[2] struggling a little to take wickets but adding useful late-order runs, especially in Pakistan in 1984. His strength inlimited-over cricket made him an important member of the ODI squad during the 1980s, appearing thirty four times and taking forty four wickets at abowling average of 25.79. His haul of five for 20 forEngland against New Zealand in 1984 was for sixteen years England's best bowling return in One Day Internationals;[7] it remains the best one-day figures by an Englandspin bowler. Marks was the first England bowler to take two ODIfive-wicket hauls (having previously taken five wickets against Sri Lanka in 1983, during theCricket world cup). This feat was subsequently emulated by theseam bowlersDarren Gough,Mark Ealham andAndrew Flintoff; the first spin bowler to equal Marks' record wasAdil Rashid in 2019.
Marks had a distinguished first-class career between 1975 and 1989 for Somerset. He also played a season forWestern Australia in the 1986–87 season, winning theSheffield Shield. In 342 first-class matches he took 859 wickets at 33.28, and scored 12,419runs at abatting average of 30.29.
As a cricketer he was popular and well-liked;Wisden editor,Matthew Engel, labelled him "a mild, nervy, self-deprecating farm boy with an Oxford degree and no enemies". This was an unusual distinction in the Somerset side of the 1980s, where three explosive personalities,Viv Richards,Joel Garner andIan Botham, had a dispute with captainPeter Roebuck, which resulted in Somerset (under the influence from Roebuck and new club Secretary Tony Brown) opting not to renew Richards' and Garner's contracts in 1986, and Botham leaving the club in protest.
The cricket correspondent Colin Bateman noted that "in typical self-deprecating style, Vic Marks entitled one of his books,Marks Out of XI. He was probably out of the England XI slightly too often. While he was never a fashionable cricketer, he was a determined and highly effective off-spinner-cum-batsman whose Test figures stand comparison with those often picked ahead of him, such asGeoff Miller andEddie Hemmings".[2]
After retiring as a professional cricketer, he turned his hand to journalism and broadcasting, and is now a regular summariser onTest Match Special. He writes regularly about cricket and occasionally rugby union forThe Observer newspaper as their Cricket Correspondent, and also forThe Guardian.[8]
As of December 2022, Marks was serving as a director at Somerset CCC, having previously held the position of Chairman of the Cricket Committee.
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| Preceded by | Somerset County Cricket Captain 1989 | Succeeded by |
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