Another Marsh in the fray
Former Test vice-captain Geoff Marsh says it was an emotional moment presenting his son Mitch with his baggy green cap yesterday.
WA's Marsh and NSW spinner Steve O'Keefe both made their debuts for Australia yesterday in the first Test against Pakistan, who won the toss and chose to bat first.
"It was quite tough, really," proud father Marsh said.
"It was a real honour to be asked to do it. It was just pleasing, more pleasing that he's got the opportunity to play Test cricket."
Marsh said WA coach Justin Langer had done a terrific job preparing Mitch for the big stage.
"When we're all 20, we're a bit, you know, like a 20-year-old," Marsh said of his son's dramas which included an alcohol-fuelled night out in South Africa when playing for Perth Scorchers in the Champions League.
"But he's 23 now, he's matured. I think that's a natural path kids go through."
Australian spearhead Mitchell Johnson (3-22) grabbed a wicket with the fifth ball of the match, and Peter Siddle soon got another to reduce Pakistan to 2-7.
But at stumps the hosts had made it to 4-219 thanks largely to Younis Khan, who made 106 before being out lbw to Johnson.
Mitch Marsh entered the attack in the ninth over and finished the day with 0-18 including four maidens in 11 overs.
Mitch joins brother Shaun in following the footsteps of father Geoff, who played 50 Tests.
Geoff Marsh presented Shaun with his baggy green cap for his Test debut in Sri Lanka in 2011 in a match where his son made 141.
It is the first father-and-two-sons combination in Australian Test cricket.
New Zealand's Hadlee family and India's Armanath family have also achieved the feat.
O'Keefe, 29, received his cap from former Test batsman Dean Jones before play.
Test skipper Michael Clarke has already described Mitch Marsh as a future Test captain.
"It's nice to hear the Australian captain say things like that. I said to Mitch you've just got to take every day in Test cricket one day at a time," Geoff Marsh said.
"Test cricket puts out a lot of challenges. You've got to meet those challenges and you only do that through good focus and concentration and working hard."
Marsh said he was pleased for both his boys, Mitch and Shaun.
"They followed me around while I was playing Test cricket and coaching Australia," Marsh said. "Deep down you could see it in their eyes they wanted to follow in those footsteps."
Marsh, 55, joked he should have produced a few more players.
"I guess we're just lucky," he said. "Speak to my wife, we should have kept going."
"When we're all 20, we're a bit, you know, like a 20-year-old … But he's 23 now, he's matured." " *Geoff Marsh * on his son Mitch
